Frozen
by Dengirl
Summary: The Doctor had been away from Earth for a while, after the events of Blood of the Imani. After seeing a stray broadcast from Earth, he's back, and back in trouble again. They say the polar region is the coldest place on Earth, but sometimes they're wrong.


**Prologue**

The snow was becoming blinding. The four figures couldn't tell which way was the right way. They didn't even stop when one of the four screamed in terror and disappeared beneath the snow.

The other three kept on running, desperate to get away from the nightmare in the snow.

One of the group stumbled, tried to recover, but fell.

The other two didn't stop, didn't look back.

The fallen figure struggled to his feet, looked round him in panicked fear, and took a step forward.

It was then he felt something move under his feet, the ground beneath him actually shifted.

The figure was dragged off his feet and disappeared into the ground with a terrified scream.

For a few minutes there was silence, and then something erupted from the snow and if anyone had been there to see, they would have barely recognised it a human corpse.

Something shifted beneath the snow, moving from left to right, as if searching for something.

Then it disappeared into the ground, and there was nothing left but the snow and the howling wind.

**Chapter One**

Julia Sanderson decided that as days went, this wasn't one of her best. She really shouldn't have bothered getting up, not after her alarm had failed to go off. The day had just gone downhill since then. She'd missed her train, the next one was late, and when she stepped out of the underground it was raining.

By the time she had reached her work place, her editor had already worked up a head of steam.

"I know, I know," she said, when she saw him approaching.

"You have thirty minutes, that press conference won't wait for you," he barked.

**************************

Now she was stuck at the back of the room, stuck between an overweight photographer and a man in a pinstripe suit who was fidgeting like he'd had one too many coffees.

She tried her best to concentrate on the group seated at the front, but it was hard when the man in the pinstriped suit kept tutting, and she could hear the occasional "good grief" or "so not right."

She forgot about him when it was her turn to ask a question.

"Professor Johnson, Julia Sanderson, Daily Mail. Is it true that your last expedition to this area caused the death of all but two of your team, and that the bodies of those that were found were buried without autopsies?"

The person at whom the question was directed shifted in his seat. "We are not here to discuss past tragedies, but to discuss future discoveries. Next question please?"

"But Professor, what about the claims by the families, that there's been a cover up by yourself and certain faction within the military?"

The man looked over at someone standing just out of eyesight. "I do believe, Miss Sanderson, You were not formally invited to this press conference. I would appreciate it if you would remove yourself, or be removed."

Julia looked at the Professor, and then at the faces looking at her. With a snort of disgust, she shoved her way past the man in the pinstripes, who followed her progress as she stormed out of the room.

As the small crowd settled, the man in the pinstripes got up and followed.

*******************

"Not invited, my arse," Julia muttered as she walked back to the bank of elevators.

She heard footsteps behind, and she looked round. She relaxed as she saw it was the man in the pinstriped suit, now sporting a long tan overcoat.

She dismissed him as another journalist, and thinking nothing more about it, stepped into the elevator.

**********************

The Doctor had been minding his own business, he really had. He'd been wandering, not really paying attention when the TARDIS had picked up the stray television broadcast.

He only had half an ear, and an eye on it, until one word got his undivided attention.

What?" he had said.

Then he had scanned the area mentioned, and had found the energy source, albeit faint.

"That can't be right, they really shouldn't."

**********************

A short time later, he had managed to con his way into the press conference, and found himself sitting next to a rather ill-mannered brunette, who had shoved past him after asking a very leading question.

Judging by the reaction to her question, she had hit a sore point, and he had noticed the look the Professor had thrown to someone hidden in the shadows.

By the time she was ejected, he had all the answers he needed, well, enough to know he really needed to get on that expedition.

He noticed the brunette again, walking ahead of him, towards the elevators. He wondered if he should catch up and start from here, but by the time he had decided, she had already stepped into an elevator and the door was closing.

Shrugging his shoulders, he turned his attention back onto how he was going to get on that expedition. He was still deep in thought, as he stepped into another elevator.

He didn't see another person heading towards the elevators, a phone stuck to his ear.

"No, I don't know how she got to the families. Yes, I'll follow her, don't worry, I won't lose her."

The figure looked up, just as the elevator door pinged shut, and decided the stairs would be quicker.

*********************

Julia stepped out of the elevator, and walked across the foyer. She pulled a face at the rain, which was still pouring down. "Wonderful, this day just keeps getting better," she said, and stepped out into the street.

As she settled into a taxi, she was already planning how to get herself on the expedition as the official reporter. She would have to call in every favour she was owed, and no doubt sell her soul to get it.

"Right, we'll see who's not invited."

********************

The Doctor stepped out of the elevator, and wandered across the foyer, towards what he hoped was a very helpful receptionist.

"Hello," he beamed at the person behind the desk. "John Smith, British Geological Society. I wonder if you could help me?" he said, flashing his psychic paper.

*****************

The figure that had been following Julia Sanderson stopped for a second after he had entered the foyer. He had seen a flash of tan overcoat in the corner of his eye.

He turned, but whoever it was had gone. Don't be stupid, he said to himself. Why would that particular person be here, not after what he'd been told about the circumstance surrounding the last few months.

The figure turned back, and swore silently. The reporter had disappeared; she must have taken a cab, while he was distracted.

"He is so going to kill me," the figure said, and took out his phone.

*********************

Julia Sanderson took a deep breath before knocking on her editor's door. "Here goes nothing," she said.

***********************

The Doctor leaned against the railings in the console room. At least he knew where and when the expedition was; now it was just the how.

He guessed he would have to do what he always did, and wing it. If he was right, and he really hoped he wasn't, this wasn't going to be easy, and it definitely wasn't going to be fun.

******************

The figure that had been following Julia stepped into the cavern like interior. He looked up at the sudden sound of wings flapping. He still couldn't get used to the idea of a real living dinosaur.

But the thought was pushed away when his boss appeared on the upper level.

"My office, now," his American drawl cut acidly across the space between them.

"Yes, sir," the figure said, and climbed the stairs, eliciting a sympathetic smile from the only other person in the place.

Up above, the living dinosaur flew a lazy circle, its wing beats almost drowning out the sound of someone being chewed up and spat out.

***********************

Somewhere, deep underground, under miles of ice, something stirred.

Something that had no right to be there.

It sensed the heat of warm flesh, and it remembered it was hungry.

**Chapter Two**

Professor Johnson watched the activity from the warmth of his office. The snow had started falling about an hour ago, but he knew it would be nothing compared to what they would have to face.

He was uneasy with the presence of the military, even more so by the presence of Torchwood. Not that he much choice, since the Dalek invasion, security world wide had been ramped up.

He looked round when the door opened.

It was Captain Harkness, the man from Torchwood, and the UNIT representative. These were men of violence; there was no place for them on a scientific expedition. Still, you had to dance with the Devil sometimes.

"Professor, why weren't we informed of the changes to your team members?" Captain Harkness asked.

"Well, I do beg your pardon," he answered, not holding back the sarcasm. "They were last minute replacements, and as far as I know, I'm still in charge of who I employ."

Captain Harkness gave the Professor a hard stare, and then turned towards his uniformed companion. "What do you think?"

Even though it was framed as a question, the Professor knew who was in charge, despite the rank marks on the man's uniform.

"We don't have a choice, it's too late to find someone else. The reporter, we can handle, but this other person, we know nothing about him, apart from the file you gave us Professor."

"Now, him we will have to keep an eye on," Captain Harkness said.

Professor Johnson interrupted their conversation. "Just because he hasn't appeared on your radar, doesn't make him a security risk. I personally reviewed his file, and think his expertise will be beneficial to this venture. I will not have either of them replaced."

Captain Harkness sighed. "Fine, but we'll keep an eye on them. I don't like the idea of this Simmons guy meeting us at the base camp."

"It seemed logical, as his research team are within fifty miles of our base camp. We were lucky to get him to come aboard."

The conversation was interrupted by a message that the last helicopter was arriving, with the last of the supplies and one Julia Sanderson.

"Right," said the Professor. "Shall we go and greet our final guest."

**********************************

Julia was glad to feel the helicopter land, she'd only been on one other military flight, and compared to this, it had been a pleasure cruise.

The flight had been a bumpy two hour journey, and she knew they had a sea crossing to make yet. She was thrilled to feel the ground beneath her feet, albeit snow covered and frozen. She was less than thrilled when she saw the little group coming towards her.

She recognised the Professor, but the rest of the group was made up of uniforms, except for one in a long military style coat.

"Miss Sanderson," the Professor said, and stuck out a hand. "I apologise for the state of the weather, but that's Mother Nature. Please, let's get inside and I'll introduce you to the others."

"Yes, please," she said as she shook his hand, a little un-nerved by the stare the man in the long coat was giving her. She felt very much like a rabbit in the headlights.

The little group started to walk back to the collection of huts in the distance. Julia could just make out the shape of the warship they were using to get to the base camp. Even in the swirling darkness she could feel the menace coming from it, she shivered and pulled her hood closer to her face.

*************************

The warmth of the mess hut hit here in a warm wave as they entered. The smell of fresh coffee and food assailed her, tickling her senses with invisible fingers.

"Please sit," the Professor gestured to a table where three other people were sitting, before walking over to the serving area. He returned with a large pot of coffee and six mugs.

"Now, let's make some introductions. This is Doctor Steven Harrison, our biologist and botanist, and this is Doctor Susan Jefferies, our Chief Medical Officer and bio-chemist, and this is Professor Jason Daniels, our archaeologist. I won't bore you with their numerous accreditations. Finally this is Captain Jack Harkness, our military and security advisor."

The three scientists had smiled and said hello, but the captain gave here a curt nod. It was obvious he didn't trust her; in fact he probably trusted no-one.

"So, where's the other member of our little band of explorers?" she asked.

********************

The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS, and would have been pleased to see real snow, if the circumstances were different.

He held up a device, which flashed steadily at him. The reading was still there, still faint, but still impossibly there.

With an involuntary shiver, he closed the TARDIS door, and began walking towards the Johnson expedition's base camp, and he was soon swallowed up by the snow.

If he had been a little more alert, he might have seen the snow move slightly on the spot where he had been standing seconds ago.

***************************

The Doctor had only gone about five miles, when he saw what looked like the shape of a very big truck looming ahead.

In fact the truck was parked next to a collection of portable cabins. He frowned; this couldn't be the base camp, not according to the holo-map he held in front of him.

"Never trust a holo-map," he said. "Perhaps I can blag a cuppa," he said, and headed for the nearest cabin.

The first thing he noticed was the smell, there was nothing like it. It was the smell of human death. He fumbled around the door for a light switch, found it and then wished he hadn't.

He never ceased to be disgusted by the Human races' predilection for murder; they never seemed to sicken of it.

Someone had obviously wanted no survivors, or no record, judging by the carnage and the damage he had found in all the other cabins.

When he came to the last cabins, he found a solitary body, and luckily enough the only working computer. With a mumbled apology, he moved the body out of the chair, and sat in front of the terminal. He switched it on, but it barely flickered with life. He produced his sonic screwdriver and placed it against the screen, and it flared into life.

"Right, let's see if we can see what you saw."

He watched the CCTV footage in stony silence. Whoever they were, they killed with clinical precision, no-one spared. He also found that this wasn't the base camp, but a small research camp about fifty miles from it. However the interesting thing was that a Professor Simmons was due to join the expedition.

He assumed that the body he had moved was that of the Professor, he'd seen the man's killer search his clothing, and remove a wallet, his ID no doubt.

"Well, that makes it more interesting, someone wants on this expedition, enough to kill for it."

He looked up sharply as a gust of wind rattled the door. He'd better get moving, he really didn't want to be stuck. He opened the door and was nearly blown over by the wind.

"Maybe not," he said, as he struggled to close the door. "Looks like I'm staying, however…"

"I'm sorry, I'm sure you're wonderful company, but…" he was almost yelling the words, as the wind picked up speed.

He laid the body from the office on the ground, and was about to step back into the cabin, when a sounddrifted on the wind, one that chilled even his blood.

**Chapter Three**

The Doctor turned away from the body, towards where he thought the sound was coming from. It was hard to tell, as the wind was whipping around him in wild circles.

He stood still, head tilted to one side, straining to locate the sound. For a moment he thought it was just the wind, but there it was again. It was a low keening howl, barely audible above the wind; he doubted that a human would have heard it, even in good weather.

Blinking, he told himself it was a trick of the wind and stepped back into the cabin. He grabbed the coat that hung on the door and settled in a corner furthest away from the door. It was going to be a long, cold night.

Out in the storm, the snow shifted around and underneath the body, like it was feeling or searching for something. Then the snow seemed to turn towards the cabin, and moved until it reached the door. There was a sudden burst of upward snow, as if something had kicked out in frustration.

The snow settled once again started to move under the body and it began to sink until the snow closed over it, leaving no sign that there had been a body at all.

*******************

Jack had been busy since he had left the Doctor. He'd returned to find a disunited and fractured team. He had only just papered over the cracks, when they had lost Toshiko and Owen. Then he had to place his own brother in a frozen prison, and then the Daleks had invaded.

He'd met up with the Doctor again; he'd witnessed a not quite regeneration, the birth of a not quite Time Lord. He'd seen Rose and the Doctor re-united, and met and flirted with the Doctor's latest companion Donna, who'd also become not quite a Time Lord.

Not forgetting, of course, meeting the creator of the Dalek race.

Now he was crossing the frozen Arctic Sea on a UNIT icebreaker, heading towards something that really shouldn't be there. He smiled at that, another impossible thing, and wished the Doctor had been here.

That would be too much to ask. He was probably swanning around the universe with Rose and Donna. He smiled again. The poor guy was probably hoping for another Dalek invasion, just so he could have a little peace.

He told himself to stop thinking about impossibilities and focus on the here and now. Officially, he was here as a security advisor to the expedition. After all, it wasn't every day a ruined city was uncovered in the middle of Artic wastelands. Plus he was very suspicious of Professor Johnson, who hadn't been very forthcoming about what had happened on the first exploration of the site.

Torchwood hadn't been able to get a look at any of the reports, or even speak to the only other survivor. Someone even higher up the chain was calling the shots. Unofficially, he was here to find out why there was a power source coming from inside and around the city.

He was sitting in the galley, looking at satellite pictures of the ruins, when he was disturbed by someone sitting opposite him. He looked up; it was the reporter Julia Sanderson.

**************************

Julia walked into the galley, and spotted Captain Harkness. She'd been thinking about where she had heard that name before, and then it had come to her.

"You're that Captain Jack Harkness, head of the so called Torchwood Research Institute, but I've been around scientists enough to know you're not here to baby sit a bunch of scientists."

Captain Harkness looked up from his paper work and smiled a humourless smile. "And you're not just here to report on a bunch of scientist digging up a bunch of old ruins."

Julia raised an eyebrow at his answer. No fooling this one, then.

"Alright, I'll get to the point, what is the head of a top secret, talk at you peril, or you'll turn up one day with out a memory military unit doing on a scientific expedition?"

"Direct, I like that, but you know I can't tell you anything."

"Okay, then how about telling me what you know about reports of a man in pinstriped suit and a blue wooden box, being present at the spate of alien incursions in the last three years?"

That question earned her a sharp look, and she knew she had hit a nerve. "I was right, Torchwood do know something. Is he one of your agents?"

Captain Harkness stood up abruptly, gathered his papers, and leaned over, right into Julia's face. "That Miss Sanderson is not why you are here. I suggest you stick to your assignment, and I'll stick to mine."

Without another word, he picked up his files and left.

Look after him, Julia smiled. "Oh, I think you and your mysterious be-suited agent are very much my assignment."

*********************

Jack cursed himself. He'd let that reporter get to him. Now she would be even more interested in him and the Doctor. It really was a good job he Doctor wasn't here; he never was very good at staying out of people's way.

****************************

The Doctor woke with a start, looking around in sleep-fuzzed confusion. "Donna…" he began, but stopped himself, realising he was alone in the cold cabin.

Just for a moment a feeling of deep sadness and regret washed over him. Sometimes he felt utterly and completely alone, especially in moments like this, times when he needed someone, just to share the darkness with.

But the thought was gone when he heard that noise again, and he sat up, suddenly awake and alert.

This time it couldn't be the wind, as the storm had passed. He stood up, and looked out of the solitary window, but saw only snow. He couldn't see the body from last night, probably covered by the snow, which was still falling.

Once again he heard that low keening howl. Where was that coming from?

He went to the door and was about to open it, when the whole cabin shifted, knocking him off his feet.

He scrabbled up as the cabin shifted again, not sideways this time but down!

**Chapter Four**

The Doctor was knocked off his feet again, as the cabin violently shifted downwards.

Scrabbling to his feet again, he knew that if he didn't get out, this would be his tomb. His eyes flicked round the cabin, and when he looked up, he saw his escape route.

He risked a look out of the only widow; the cabin had stopped moving, so he dragged the desk until it was directly under the hatch in the roof. He stood on the desk and began sonicking the screws that held the hatch.

The cabin shifted again, and the window shattered inwards, and snow began to fill the cabin, not in the avalanche the Doctor had expected, but a slow trickle, almost like tendrils of snow.

The Doctor turned his attention back to the hatch, and when he felt something cold on his neck, he dismissed as just the snow.

The cabin suddenly shifted, more violently this time, causing the desk to slip away.

The Doctor instinctively grabbed the edges of the hatch, and swung dangerously by just his hands.

He glanced down, and saw the snow filling the cabin. It wouldn't be long before the weight started to break the cabin apart.

With a muscle stretching heave, he pulled himself out of the hatch, scrambled to his feet, ran for the edge of the cabin, took his chance and leapt.

He landed with a thud, on the snowy side of the hole, hands digging into the compacted snow. His feet slipped, as his sneakers could gain any purchase.

"This is so not good," he said through gritted teeth.

He dug deep into his energy reserves and clawed his way out of the deepening hole.

With a final effort, he heaved himself over the edge, rolled away and lay on his back, taking deep breaths of cold air.

Taking a few more deep breaths, he finally sat up, and looked back at the hole.

The cabin was now completely out of sight, and as he stood up, snow began to cover the hole. Curiosity getting the better of him, he moved to the edge of the disappearing hole.

He back-pedalled suddenly, as a huge spout of snow shot into the air. As the snow settled, he thought for a moment he saw something moving in the freshly churned ground.

He dismissed as a trick of the snow and bright skies.

He took a few moments to get his bearings; he looked down at his sodden sneakers and trouser bottoms. As he looked round, he spotted the first thing he had seen when he found this place.

*******************

Jack watched as the base crew helped unload the equipment from the snow trucks. He'd already voiced his opinion on there being too much luggage, only to get looks of 'military' from the four scientists.

So he concentrated on searching out the elusive Professor Simmons, whilst trying to avoid the constant scrutiny of that damn reporter.

He finally found the Professor, who had his own little team, sitting outside his large tent, going over a set of notes.

Jack strolled over, trying to look casual. He had however noticed the concealed side-arms some of the Professor's assistants were wearing.

The Professor looked up as he heard Jack approaching, and put his paperwork to one side.

"Ah, you must be Captain Harkness, our security advisor. It seems a little odd to need security out in the middle of a frozen wasteland."

Jack raised one eyebrow. "No more so than having your own armed staff," he said, nodding towards the nearest assistant.

Professor Simmons smiled. "Touché, I assume you're here to make sure I'm not a security risk. I can give you the number of Head of MI5 if you like, so you can personally check on my clearance level."

Jack shook his head. "I'm sure it will be in order, just thought I'd introduce myself."

"Sure, please sit, would you like a drink, tea, coffee?"

Jack sat down next to the Professor, but continued to watch the activity of the camp.

"You think all of this is unnecessary, I quite agree, we have no idea of what lies within those ruins. I think Professor Johnson is in this for the fame, and that Captain Harkness is a dangerous thing."

"So, what are you here for?" Jack asked his eyes still on the busy camp.

"Direct, I like that. I'm here to pick up the baton if this all goes wrong, so I suppose I'm here for the glory too."

Jack was about to reply, when a commotion at the other end of the camp caught his attention. In the distance, faint at first, he could hear the throaty growl of an engine.

Both men stood up, and the Professor assistants became very alert.

Cries of alarm preceded a very large black truck, smashing its way through a stack of crates.

Jack ran towards the chaos, yelling for people to get the hell out of the truck's way.

The truck swerved to avoid a cabin, and began sliding, wheels spinning, unable to find any purchase.

Jack turned at a run, as the truck slid away.

He could see where the truck was heading, and he pushed himself to run faster.

*******************

The truck suddenly jinked to the right, as if the driver could see the danger that Jack had, and was trying to avoid it.

But the sudden movement was too much for the truck, and it tipped onto two wheels, caught a bump in the ice, landed on its side, and continued sliding. It hit the side of one of the stationary trucks, pushed it for a few metres, before coming to a shuddering halt.

Jack was the first to reach the overturned vehicle. He clambered onto the side of the truck, looked in and froze.

"Hello again," a familiar voice said.

**Chapter Five**

Jack blinked in disbelief at the figure now extricating itself from a mangled seat belt.

"Nice to meet you again too, Jack, a little help would be nice," the Doctor said, his voice acidic.

The tone of the Doctor's voice spurred Jack into action, and he put a hand out to the Doctor, which he grabbed, allowing Jack to haul him up and out of the cab of the truck.

He landed next to Jack and swayed a little. "That was a little too fairground for my liking." He didn't seem to notice Jack staring at him with a mixture of disbelief and confusion. "This has to be the base camp. Please tell me this is the base camp," he said, turning on the spot.

Jack's confusion turned to annoyance. The Doctor was deliberately ignoring him. "Doctor," he said, but when the Doctor still continued looking around him, he lost his cool. "Doctor!" he said loudly, and it seemed to have the desired effect.

The Doctor jumped slightly. "There really is no need to shout. I maybe nine-hundred years old, but I am not deaf."

"Doctor, what the hell are you doing here?" Jack said slowly, punctuating every word.

"Oh, stray TV broadcast, eventful press conference, nearly buried alive in a cabin, crashing a truck, which I really won't be doing again too soon, following a energy source, usual thing really." All this was said at his normal one-breath speed. "Mind you, wasn't expecting an armed welcome party," he paused. "Then again," and he nodded towards four armed men running towards them.

************************

Jack tensed as the men approached, knowing how easily things could get out of hand. As the first man approached, he placed himself in front of the Doctor, staring the man down, daring him to challenge.

"Jack, what are you doing?" the Doctor said, a little wary himself of the four gunmen.

One of the gunmen spoke. "Shouldn't you be the one holding the gun on him, you are the security advisor."

Jack had to think fast, and was about to speak, when another voice spoke, no, shouted.

"I knew it, you do know him!" It was the reporter, Julia Sanderson, and she was marching purposefully towards the small group.

The four men quickly holstered their weapons, just before she barged through them, and stood almost nose to nose with the Doctor. "I've got a million questions to ask you," she said, poking the Doctor in the chest.

The Doctor looked over at Jack, a bewildered look on his face. Jack was about to step in when a voice boomed from behind the group.

"Miss Sanderson, please refrain from harassing the man!"

They all looked over in the direction of the voice. Professors Johnson and Simmons were striding across the compound. The little group parted as the pair arrived.

"As I said, stop harassing the man, he needs to be seen by the doctor."

"Do I?" the Doctor said, frowning. "Who says so?"

"That would be me, Professor Andrew Simmons," the taller of the two men said, and stuck out a hand.

*******************

For a moment, Jack thought he saw the Doctor's expression darken, but it was instantly replaced by his trademark grin. "Professor, so glad to finally meet you, I've been an admirer of your work for ages. Loved your paper on the possibilities of parallel universes," the Doctor said as he shook the proffered hand.

Professor Simmons gave the Doctor a hard stare. "It seems you have me at a disadvantage, who might you be?"

"Doctor John Smith," the Doctor replied.

"And you work for?" Professor Simmons asked.

"Oh, I'm freelance, at the moment; I'm working for Captain Harkness here. Isn't that right, captain?" the Doctor said, turning to Jack.

Jack, to his credit, never missed a beat. "Yeah, although I wasn't expecting such an unusual entrance."

"Oh, you know me, never do anything by halves, more fun that way," the Doctor grinned.

****************

There was an indignant huff from the right. Julia Sanderson stood with her arms folded, glaring at Jack and the Doctor. "I'm watching you," she said, and stalked off.

"Never mind Miss Sanderson, you really should let Dr. Jefferies look at you," Professor Johnson said.

"Yes, let's go see the doc, shall we?" Jack said, grabbing the Doctor and steering him to the main building, and away from curious eyes and ears.

As Jack dragged him away, the Doctor took one last look at the receding form of Professor Simmons. He would have to be clever to outwit this one, very clever.

************************

Jack pushed the door open to his temporary quarters. He dragged the Doctor inside, pointed to a single chair. "Sit," he said. "I'll be back in a few minutes, don't move."

"Yes, sir," the Doctor muttered under his breath, and as soon as Jack had shut the door, he was up and opening the door, only to find it locked. "You're getting to know me too well Harkness," the Doctor smiled, "but not well enough."

A quick look round didn't uncover another way out, so he reached into his pocket for the screwdriver, but it was missing. "Then again," he sighed and slumped down onto the cot.

He absently picked up a file that was lying on the cot and began flipping through it. He stopped when he came across a picture. "Now, you really shouldn't be here, well not anymore."

***********************

When Jack unlocked the door and entered, he found the Doctor had the artic ruins file spread over the cot. His glasses were perched on the end of his nose, and he was muttering to himself. He looked up as Jack entered, and Jack's pulse quickened when he saw the excited sparkle in the Doctor's eyes.

"Jack, why didn't you call me, this city is ancient, I mean really ancient, and can I have my screwdriver back?"

"What's the magic word?" Jack smiled, all annoyance at him just showing up gone.

The Doctor spared him a look, one he used when dealing with a misbehaving child.

Jack shrugged, took out the instrument and handed it to the Doctor, who took it absent-mindedly.

"This really shouldn't be here. How long has it been uncovered?"

Jack sat down on the only clear spot of the cot. There was no point in asking where the hell he'd been for the last six months, and why hadn't he answered the myriad of phone messages he and Martha had left. He knew he wouldn't get a straight answer, but there was one question he was going to ask. "Doctor, where are Donna and Rose?"

The Doctor didn't look up from the paperwork, in fact he didn't seem to have heard the question, but Jack knew he had. "Doctor, where are they?"

There was a pause before he answered. "They went home," was all he said, but there was a universe of sadness in those three words.

"They went home, why?" Jack persisted.

This time the Doctor looked up, and there was a spark of anger in his eyes. "They just did, like they always do."

Jack was about to ask again, when there was a knock at the door. "What is it?" Jack said abruptly.

"Just a message from Professor Johnson, there's a storm coming our way, we're moving out in an hour, to get ahead of it."

Jack looked at the Doctor, who had looked up from the paperwork.

"Looks like we're going early then?" the Doctor said. "Suits me fine."

Jack looked at the Doctor. There was something he wasn't being told, and he didn't like that, not one bit.

********************

The whole camp was in turmoil as people bustled about loading snow trucks and snowmobiles. The only person that didn't look hustled was the Doctor, who was strolling casually through the chaos. Jack knew that to be a con; he was taking in everything, from the smallest test tube to the large boxes of supplies. The sounds of engines being fired up filled the air, and black smoke belched from cold engines.

Jack pulled up to the Doctor in his own truck. "Get in, I don't want you out of my sight. I don't like this, not one bit."

The Doctor said nothing, and settled himself in his seat. He looked out of the front windscreen, watching the other trucks pull away, and steadied himself as their own vehicle set off.

****************

The base camp fell into silence after the noise of the convoy. he remaining staff wandered back towards the mess tent, eager for a warm meal. The storm was coming in faster than they thought, and the wind was already howling, a low, almost inaudible howl.

On the outskirts of the camp, the snow started to shift and move, as if something was waiting, waiting for the storm.

**Chapter Six**

The convoy made its way across the frozen plain, bright sunlight bouncing blindingly off the surface. As it came close to mid-day, the convoy stopped at the bottom of a huge wall of ice.

The Doctor alighted from their truck, and began walking towards the huge sheet of crystal blue ice. "I take it the city is behind this," the Doctor said, looking up.

The ice wall must have been a good thirty metres, and was slick with water. The Doctor put his hand against it, feeling that peculiar burn that you got when touching something so very cold. He frowned, there was something else, he could feel it, something that was there but not there.

He closed his eyes, and tried to focus on that something, could feel it on the edge of his mind. With an unexpected speed, the something rushed forward, clawing at his mind.

**************************

"Doctor Smith, are you okay?" a voice that was not Jack's pulled at his consciousness.

With a sharp intake of breath, he pulled his hand away from the ice, and shook his head. He blinked a couple of times, blinded slightly by the sun reflecting on the wall of ice. As his eyes focused again, a female face swam into view, a face that was frowning in concern.

"Doctor Smith?" she repeated. "You were supposed to come and see me, after your entrance," the face raised an eyebrow.

The Doctor stared blankly at her, his head still buzzing from whatever he'd contacted, and then the face clicked with a name. "Doctor Jefferies, isn't it?"

The woman smiled at him. "Nothing wrong with your memory then, although…." Before the Doctor could protest she had grabbed hold of his head, and was carefully examining his eyes. "Your eyes look a little unfocused, I think you should get back in your vehicle, the sun here can be a bit strong."

The Doctor looked at her blankly, his eyes searching her startling jade green pair.

"No cloud cover, it's like getting sunstroke, without the heat," she said. She produced a bottle of white tablets, popped the lid and let two fall into her hand. "Aspirin, take one now, the other in couple of hours." When the Doctor gave the tablets a wary look, she sighed. "Trust me, the headache you'll have later will be a bitch," she said before turning on her heels and walking away.

The Doctor looked after her, before giving the two tablets a disgusted look. He dropped them in the snow and turned back to the ice wall. There was something, something beyond this barrier, and somehow he knew it would be in that city.

********************

Jack looked up from unpacking his climbing gear; he could see the Doctor wandering towards the ice wall and place a hand on it. He shook his head, trust the guy to find a wall of ice fascinating.

He went back to his work, and didn't think to look up again, not until he heard the sound of a concerned voice. It was coming from the small communications tent he had helped set up.

"Base camp, this is Crystal One, do you copy."

The concern in that voice was enough to make Jack stop what he was doing, and walk inside the tent. "Is there a problem?" he asked.

"Not sure, I can't raise base camp," the operator said.

"Could be the storm?" Jack said.

"No, this equipment is state of the art, we don't rely on radio signals. Not even a complete white out should effect it."

Jack frowned, and looked up when someone else entered the tent.

*********************

"Is there a problem?" Professor Johnson asked.

"We can't raise the base camp, I've been trying on and off for a couple of hours."

"Well, it can't be the storm, weather reports say it blew over ten miles from our position. I'll get Professor Simmons to send a couple of his men back. I doubt it's anything serious."

The Professor looked at Jack. "We're starting the climb in about ten minutes, are you ready?"

"As I'll ever be, but I still think you've got way too much equipment, and way too many civilians."

Professor Johnson eyed Jack coldly. "Those civilian have probably logged more hours in the field than you ever have," he said before leaving the tent.

"I don't think so," Jack muttered. "Keep trying, you know my call sign if you have no luck," he told the operator. He left the tent and made his way back to his equipment, all he had to do now was round up the Doctor and he'd be ready.

******************************

The Doctor hadn't moved from the ice wall, his mind was full of questions. He had placed his hand back on the ice once the doctor had gone, but he couldn't feel that something that was there before.

"Earth to Time Lord," a voice brought him back to the present. Jack was standing in front of him, two sets of climbing gear in his hands. "Hello," he said, far more brightly than he should. "Are we going climbing?"

**********************

Jack stood on top of the ice wall, watching the equipment being hauled up. He knew he'd been right; the copious amounts of cursing were testament to that.

The Doctor stood to one side; he wasn't watching the rest of the climbers. He was looking into the far distance, but even with his superior eyesight, he could only just make out the distant outlines of buildings.

The city must still be a good forty or fifty miles, so those buildings could possibly be some sort of outer defence, against what he wondered.

He was distracted by the flowery language coming out of Jack's mouth. He turned back to give him a hand, when the something he had felt earlier hit him with mind ripping force.

**************

Jack was cursing the climbers below. "Dammit, leave the goddamn equipment and get your asses up here!" he bawled.

It was as he finished shouting that he heard the sound of feet slipping on ice. He turned and froze as he saw the Doctor suddenly keel over, then disappear over the edge of the wall.

Chapter Seven

"No!" Jack cried, frantically unclipping himself, ignoring the shouts of alarm from below.

He scrabbled across the icy ledge, fear tightening his stomach. "Doctor!" he shouted as he moved closer to the edge.

Fearing the worse he looked over the edge, expecting to see a crumpled figure below. "No, no," he said and without thinking jumped.

He landed with a bone jarring thud, lost his footing, and fell heavily. Scrabbling up he ran to the place where the Doctor should have been, but there was nothing.

It was like the ground had swallowed him, the snow wasn't even disturbed.

"What the blazes are you doing!?" Professor Johnson called from the top of the wall.

Jack didn't answer; he was busy looking for any trace of the Doctor ever being here.

***********************

He was still looking when the others joined him on the ground, but was becoming increasingly frustrated.

Professor Johnson strode up to Jack, anger clear on his face. "That was a stupid idiotic stunt to pull, you could have killed yourself."

It was then that he realised they were missing a member of the team. "Where is your associate, ?"

Jack didn't answer for a few seconds; he was trying to regain his composure. When he spoke, it was in a quiet tone that anyone who knew him would have been very wary of.

"He fell, all because I was watching you and your damn equipment, and your civilians, instead of watching him. Now I can't find him, he's just gone."

"He could have fallen through a false ice bridge. I'm sorry, but he's gone," Professor Simmons said.

It was the tone of his voice that riled Jack, that matter-of-fact, he-wasn't-important tone.

He was about to round on the Professor, when Professor Daniels shouted. "Look, over there!" and ran forward.

*************

As they converged on the place Professor Daniels had pointed at, they could see something poking through the snow, an arm.

Jack's heart lifted, but it was dashed when he saw what it was, yes it was an arm, but not the arm he wanted.

One of Professor Simmons' assistants went to grab the arm, but was pushed away by Professor Daniels. "No, don't move it!" he shouted. When the others looked at him in surprise he carried on speaking. "Look at the state of the flesh, this body's been under the snow for a long time."

"And how do you know that?" asked, looking closely at the exposed hand.

Professor Daniels crouched down besides the arm. "Because the clothing it's wearing isn't modern material, it's Neolithic."

"I don't give a rat's ass about some long dead guy, I want to find Dr. Smith," Jack snarled. "You can play scientists. I'm looking for the important thing."

***************************

The Doctor had be un-prepared for the assault on his senses, the something that wasn't quite there, had become a very real something.

He'd felt himself slip and fall, but was unable to stop his rapid descent. He braced himself for the bone-shattering crunch that was surely going to follow, and was greatly surprised when he sank into the snow, instead of making a Doctor shaped dent in it.

However, his surprise gave way to panic, as the snow began to close in, covering his nose and mouth, clogging up his airway. His by-pass system kicked in automatically, but even that was soon over-run by the snow, and he lost consciousness soon after.

Bright light and oxygen rushed back painfully and suddenly. He inhaled sharply, and was rewarded with a lungful of freezing air.

He spent the next few minutes trying to control a lung-racking cough, which he finally got under control, after the last of many whooping ragged breaths.

He lay still for a few moments, waiting for his eyes to stop streaming, and his senses to come back to him.

When he judged himself fit enough to sit up, he did so, and almost had to lie down again, when he saw where he was.

**********************

The tunnel seemed to be never ending, and the Doctor felt decidedly uncomfortable. He still couldn't shake that feeling of there being something nearby, that awful hair on the back of your neck feeling, that being watched feeling.

"Don't be paranoid," he told himself. "You've been in enough ice tunnels to know not everyone has monster in it."

He was however glad to see that the tunnel was beginning to widen out and he allowed himself to think about how his sudden disappearance was affecting the others, especially Jack.

********************

Jack had dug a good six feet, and had only stopped when he hit solid ice. There was something not right about this, not right at all.

He threw the shovel away in disgust, if the Doctor was still alive, he would have to fend for himself, for now.

He looked over to where the others were fussing over the body they had found in the ice. Professor Daniels was hovering anxiously as Dr Simmons assistants carefully lifted the corpse from its icy grave.

"This really isn't good, you're going to damage the body," the archaeologist grumbled.

"Listen, it's been dead for over five thousand years, I really don't think its going to sue," Dr. Harrison said. "Besides, you're never going to get it over that ice, not without damaging it."

Professor Daniels glared at him, muttered something about plant lovers, before returning to his anxious supervision.

Jack walked over to Professor Johnson and stood with him as he watched.

"I'm sorry about your friend?" the Professor said.

"Don't be, he knew the risks. I'm more worried about getting this lot out of here alive and in one piece."

"Quite, perhaps we should put a stop to this little debacle, and get on with the actual work."

"Agreed, I want out of here," Jack said, he couldn't concentrate on finding the Doctor with all these other distractions around him.

"By the looks of the sky, we'd better get a move on, I think that storm is heading our way," he added.

*************************

The Doctor was thankful that the tunnel had widened, he had started to ache from having to stoop. He was hoping that the increasing light meant that he was getting closer to finding a way out of this tunnel.

He quickened his pace, as the light became brighter.

He stopped suddenly. He had that feeling again, and this time it wouldn't go away.

He went to move again when he heard a noise. The noise sounded like a thousands nails on a blackboard, it snagged every nerve in his body, and then there was the smell, like rotting corpses and sulphur.

He turned slowly, and his eyes widened in fear, surprise and, god knew why, excitement.

"Now, you definitely shouldn't be here," he said, as he turned on his heels and ran.

************************

"No!" Jack cried, frantically unclipping himself, ignoring the shouts of alarm from below.

He scrabbled across the icy ledge, fear tightening his stomach. "Doctor!" he shouted as he moved closer to the edge.

Fearing the worse he looked over the edge, expecting to see a crumpled figure below. "No, no," he said and without thinking jumped.

He landed with a bone jarring thud, lost his footing, and fell heavily. Scrabbling up he ran to the place where the Doctor should have been, but there was nothing.

It was like the ground had swallowed him, the snow wasn't even disturbed.

"What the blazes are you doing!?" Professor Johnson called from the top of the wall.

Jack didn't answer; he was busy looking for any trace of the Doctor ever being here.

***********************

He was still looking when the others joined him on the ground, but was becoming increasingly frustrated.

Professor Johnson strode up to Jack, anger clear on his face. "That was a stupid idiotic stunt to pull, you could have killed yourself."

It was then that he realised they were missing a member of the team. "Where is your associate, ?"

Jack didn't answer for a few seconds; he was trying to regain his composure. When he spoke, it was in a quiet tone that anyone who knew him would have been very wary of.

"He fell, all because I was watching you and your damn equipment, and your civilians, instead of watching him. Now I can't find him, he's just gone."

"He could have fallen through a false ice bridge. I'm sorry, but he's gone," Professor Simmons said.

It was the tone of his voice that riled Jack, that matter-of-fact, he-wasn't-important tone.

He was about to round on the Professor, when Professor Daniels shouted. "Look, over there!" and ran forward.

*************

As they converged on the place Professor Daniels had pointed at, they could see something poking through the snow, an arm.

Jack's heart lifted, but it was dashed when he saw what it was, yes it was an arm, but not the arm he wanted.

One of Professor Simmons' assistants went to grab the arm, but was pushed away by Professor Daniels. "No, don't move it!" he shouted. When the others looked at him in surprise he carried on speaking. "Look at the state of the flesh, this body's been under the snow for a long time."

"And how do you know that?" asked, looking closely at the exposed hand.

Professor Daniels crouched down besides the arm. "Because the clothing it's wearing isn't modern material, it's Neolithic."

"I don't give a rat's ass about some long dead guy, I want to find Dr. Smith," Jack snarled. "You can play scientists. I'm looking for the important thing."

***************************

The Doctor had be un-prepared for the assault on his senses, the something that wasn't quite there, had become a very real something.

He'd felt himself slip and fall, but was unable to stop his rapid descent. He braced himself for the bone-shattering crunch that was surely going to follow, and was greatly surprised when he sank into the snow, instead of making a Doctor shaped dent in it.

However, his surprise gave way to panic, as the snow began to close in, covering his nose and mouth, clogging up his airway. His by-pass system kicked in automatically, but even that was soon over-run by the snow, and he lost consciousness soon after.

Bright light and oxygen rushed back painfully and suddenly. He inhaled sharply, and was rewarded with a lungful of freezing air.

He spent the next few minutes trying to control a lung-racking cough, which he finally got under control, after the last of many whooping ragged breaths.

He lay still for a few moments, waiting for his eyes to stop streaming, and his senses to come back to him.

When he judged himself fit enough to sit up, he did so, and almost had to lie down again, when he saw where he was.

**********************

The tunnel seemed to be never ending, and the Doctor felt decidedly uncomfortable. He still couldn't shake that feeling of there being something nearby, that awful hair on the back of your neck feeling, that being watched feeling.

"Don't be paranoid," he told himself. "You've been in enough ice tunnels to know not everyone has monster in it."

He was however glad to see that the tunnel was beginning to widen out and he allowed himself to think about how his sudden disappearance was affecting the others, especially Jack.

********************

Jack had dug a good six feet, and had only stopped when he hit solid ice. There was something not right about this, not right at all.

He threw the shovel away in disgust, if the Doctor was still alive, he would have to fend for himself, for now.

He looked over to where the others were fussing over the body they had found in the ice. Professor Daniels was hovering anxiously as Dr Simmons assistants carefully lifted the corpse from its icy grave.

"This really isn't good, you're going to damage the body," the archaeologist grumbled.

"Listen, it's been dead for over five thousand years, I really don't think its going to sue," Dr. Harrison said. "Besides, you're never going to get it over that ice, not without damaging it."

Professor Daniels glared at him, muttered something about plant lovers, before returning to his anxious supervision.

Jack walked over to Professor Johnson and stood with him as he watched.

"I'm sorry about your friend?" the Professor said.

"Don't be, he knew the risks. I'm more worried about getting this lot out of here alive and in one piece."

"Quite, perhaps we should put a stop to this little debacle, and get on with the actual work."

"Agreed, I want out of here," Jack said, he couldn't concentrate on finding the Doctor with all these other distractions around him.

"By the looks of the sky, we'd better get a move on, I think that storm is heading our way," he added.

*************************

The Doctor was thankful that the tunnel had widened, he had started to ache from having to stoop. He was hoping that the increasing light meant that he was getting closer to finding a way out of this tunnel.

He quickened his pace, as the light became brighter.

He stopped suddenly. He had that feeling again, and this time it wouldn't go away.

He went to move again when he heard a noise. The noise sounded like a thousands nails on a blackboard, it snagged every nerve in his body, and then there was the smell, like rotting corpses and sulphur.

He turned slowly, and his eyes widened in fear, surprise and, god knew why, excitement.

"Now, you definitely shouldn't be here," he said, as he turned on his heels and ran.

**Chapter Eight**

Jack dragged the last of the containers through the gate, before helping one of Simmons assistants heave the gate shut. The city and the storm had both been nearer than they thought. It was only now he had made sure everyone was safe within the walls, did he stop to take in his surroundings.

He'd been expecting a bunch of crumbling frozen ruins, but now as he looked round, they weren't ruins at all. As far as he could see, there were undamaged buildings, but the strangest thing was that they were not covered in snow or ice.

The storm outside seemed to throw itself against the walls, rattling the gate, but it never seemed to penetrate. Now he wished the Doctor was here, he might make some sense of this, speaking of which, he wondered if the Doctor was still alive.

No, he didn't want to think of the Doctor as dead; he had to think positive. Knowing the Doctor, he'd probably got himself into some kind of trouble.

"Captain Harkness, may I have your assistance," one of the scientist called.

Sighing, he pushed himself away from the gate, glad to get away from the incessant howling of the wind.

********************************

Outside the wall, the snow churned and threw itself against the wall. If the humans had the hearing of a Time Lord, they would have heard the screeching howl of something deprived of its prey.

It was hungry, so hungry.

****************************

The Doctor chanced a look round as he pelted down the tunnel. He had taken one look at those salivating jaws, filled with way too many teeth, and decided that retreat was the better part of valour, for now.

He relied on his hearing to judge how far the thing was behind him. He called it a thing, for want of a better description, he wasn't about to stop and ask it to stand still while he examined it.

His nerves jangled again as the screech filled the tunnel, the scraping of thick claws biting into the ice, telling him that this thing would eventually catch him.

He skidded round a bend in the tunnel, lost his footing and slid down the slope that fell away at an alarming angle.

Thinking quickly, he delved into his coat pocket, grabbed hold of the penknife he kept for something less exciting than this. He flicked it open and plunged it into the rapidly passing ice.

The impact caused fire to rip through his shoulder, as his descent was slowed instantly, but he was still sliding down. He looked up and saw what was ahead; he then looked back, and saw the creature still behind him, albeit moving more cautiously.

He weighed up his options, made up his mind, and setting his jaw, he let go of the knife, and braced himself for the inevitable consequences.

The last thing he heard was the frustrated screech of the creature as he was plunged into darkness.

*********************

Jack had taken it upon himself to explore the area around their camp. He was about to move off when a voice called out.

"Captain Harkness, wait!"

He turned and scowled. It was Julia Sanderson. "What is it?" he growled as she approached.

"I just wanted to apologise, for being so rude to your associate, and I'm sorry he's gone."

"He wasn't my associate, he was my friend, and I don't want false sympathy," he said and started walking away again.

Julia ran after him. "Please let me go with you," she said.

"Fine, just don't get in my way," he said, and kept on walking.

They walked for a few minutes along what looked like a very normal residential area, lined with a variety of different size and coloured buildings.

Every so often, Julia would stop and take a photograph. "This place is amazing, this is going to blow people's minds."

"Not if I can help it," Jack said.

Julia looked at him. "Why not?"

"No-one but this team know this place exists, the rest of the world thinks it's just another global warming research project. I'm here to make sure it keeps thinking that, so I wouldn't bother taking any more photos, they'll only be confiscated."

"So, what am I doing here?" Julia said.

"You're a journalist, I'm sure you can find something to say about our effect on the arctic ice pack."

"You wouldn't dare censor the press."

"Wouldn't I, I've done it with bigger things," Jack answered.

"What, would I end up disappearing, and turning up a few days later with memory loss?"

"You might, if you turn up at all," Jack said darkly.

"Is that a threat?" she challenged.

"I don't make threats, only promises," Jack said.

They'd come to the end of the row of buildings, and found their way blocked by the first signs of damage. A large structure of some kind had collapsed in on itself, and was half submerged in water.

"I think it's time we went back, I find if you leave scientists alone for too long, they get themselves in trouble," Jack said.

***************************

Doctor Harrison had wandered away from the camp, and found himself in the remains of a garden. He was surprised to find none of the plants were frozen, or had any frost damage. If he could get these to grow outside of this environment, they could prove to be a giant step forward in growing hardy plants for arid regions.

He looked up when he thought he heard a rustling in a group of bushes to his left, perhaps it was someone sent to find him.

"Hello, I'm over here," he said. When the only reply he got was more rustling, he moved closer to the bushes.

"Hello," he said again, and placed his hands on the bush to part it. Suddenly what looked like a set of vines lashed out, and wrapped themselves around his hands.

Okay, he said to himself, don't panic. He pulled gently but it only made the vines constrict further. He cried out when the vines bit deep into his wrists, and he saw blood seeping from beneath them.

Now he started to pull in panic as more vines started wrapping themselves around his waist and legs. "Somebody help!" he shouted, but knew he'd wandered too far for anyone to hear.

"Somebody…!"

His cries were cut off as the vines wrapped themselves around his face, and he began to choke as one forced itself into his throat, and gradually his struggles lessened, until they stopped.

The vines continued to contract and the sound of bones cracking and being crushed filled the garden, and the vine covered body of Dr. Harrison was dragged into the bush.

The sound of something being eaten replaced the sounds of bones crushing.

And then there was silence.

********************************

Jack and Julia walked back into the camp, only to find it in a state of mild panic.

Professor Johnson ran up to them as soon as he saw them aproaching. "Thank god you're back."

"What's happened?" Jack asked, instantly alert.

"It's Professor Harrison, he went to find plant specimens. That was an hour ago, and he isn't answering his radio."

"Which way did he go?" Jack asked.

"That way, towards the walled off area," Professor Johnson said.

Jack gestured to the two remaining so called assistants of Professor Simmons. "You two, with me," and didn't wait for them to respond, before heading in the pointed direction.

He knew there was something not right about this place, so there was another worry to add to his concern for the Doctor.

***************************

The silence of the street that the pair had recently left, was suddenly broken by the sounds of water moving. The water surrounding the half submerged building began to bubble and churn.

A spout of water shot into the air, carrying with it an indistinct figure. The water spout suddenly ceased, and the figure came crashing to the ground.

The figure tried to stand, wobbled and then thought better of it and collapsed to the floor.

**Chapter Nine**

The Doctor had been expecting to land on solid ice, and had braced himself for the inevitable. He hadn't therefore been prepared to hit ice cold water instead, the shock of the cold taking his breath. After a few seconds he managed to get control of his body and began to swim towards the light, assuming that it was the surface.

He'd only gone a few strokes when he felt something tug on his legs. He stopped swimming and looked down. He was relieved to see it wasn't something with teeth, but something was definitely pulling him down and whatever it was, he wasn't able to resist it.

The water churned around him. He found that fighting it was just too tiring, so he relaxed and let the water take him.

It wasn't until he realised he was going up, that it dawned on him, that this could end painfully, or even fatally. In the split second it took for those thoughts to enter his head, he shot out of the water, very much like a cork from a bottle.

The water spout must have carried him a good ten metres upwards, before stopping and disappearing from under him.

This is so going to hurt he thought as he saw the ground rushing up at him.

**********************

The Doctor jerked awake, and for a moment was unsure as to where he was. Then he remembered the tunnel, the thing with teeth, and his watery fairground ride.

Forcing himself to sit up, he took a few seconds to allow his equilibrium to settle, before attempting to stand. He stood for a while, his head still spinning slightly, but he was aware he wasn't in an ice tunnel anymore.

In fact, he was inside the city that he had seen just before falling off the damn ice wall, just after that something had launched its assault on his mind. He could still feel it, buzzing around the fringes of his consciousness, touching, but not quite invading. Whatever it was, it felt intelligent, and for the moment seemed to content with just brushing the edges of his mind.

He reached out with is own mind and came close but didn't touch the something. He wasn't surprised when it retreated, the fact that it did confirmed it was intelligent, well at least he hoped so.

"Stop this," he said to himself. "I think finding the others and getting out of here is just a little more important."

He withdrew from the edges of his mind and looked around him. "Now, this is what I call a city," he said as he started walking.

He reached into his pocket, found that he still had his sonic; he adjusted the settings as he walked. The tip glowed brightly, and a series of clicks started emitting from it, and he started walking at a faster pace.

***********************

Jack and the two assistants pushed through the foliage that covered the entrance to what looked like a very large garden. They had traced Dr. Harrison's radio signal, and had found them selves in this garden. He'd split the three of them up, each of them taking a different direction. It was risky, but he had to find the doctor and quick, god knows what sort of dangers there were in this place.

He stopped when he thought he heard something moving in the bushes behind him, he dismissed it as his nerves playing with him. Then he heard it again, this time from his left, and then he knew he wasn't hearing things.

He turned slowly, carefully taking his weapon from its holster, and moved closer to the sound. By now the rustling had turned to thrashing, whatever was in the bushes was big, and not scared of humans.

Jack steeled himself and aimed his automatic at the bushes as whatever it was started to part the greenery.

*******************

Whatever it was burst through the leaves and coalesced into a pinstriped, tan overcoat wearing something, that grinned brightly when it saw Jack, gun raised and a startled expression on his face.

"Hello, Jack," the Doctor said brightly. He stepped out of the bush and gently pushed Jack's still raised gun away from his face.

Before Jack could say anything, he was off across the garden, sonic held out in front of him. He had nearly disappeared round a large tree before Jack came to his senses. Holstering his weapon, he ran after the disappearing form of the Doctor.

"Doctor, wait up!" he called, but pulled up short when he rounded the tree.

*****************************

The Doctor was trying desperately to free one of the assistants, who had become entangled in what looked like vines. He was alternating between using the screwdriver against one of the vines, and trying to pull them off the man's body.

Jack froze for a few seconds, but was pushed into action, when several vines whipped around, attaching themselves to the Doctor.

"Oh, no, you don't," the Doctor growled, tearing the vines from himself. "And you are not having him for lunch."

He didn't seem to notice Jack appear at his side, starting to cut away at the vines with his blade. This seemed have the desired affect the Doctor had wanted, as the vines around the man contracted, almost like they were in pain.

Pulling together, Jack and the Doctor tore the man from the grasp of the vines. They dragged him away, and didn't stop until they were a safe distance from the bush.

It wasn't until they stopped that they could see the extent of the man's injuries. There were deep bloody welts where the vines had dug into his flesh.

The Doctor was running the sonic over the man's body. "Crushed collar bone, several broken ribs, looks like there's internal injuries. Looks like his liver's been crushed, there's going to be internal bleeding."

He looked up at Jack, sadness in his eyes. "I'm sorry, Jack, there's nothing I can do. I don't think he'll live for much longer."

Jack looked over at the now benign-looking bush. "What the hell was that thing?"

"Malusian Vine, nasty little plant, carnivorous. It shouldn't even be in this galaxy, let alone on Earth. In fact this whole place shouldn't be here, not a plant, not a brick, not a single stone."

Jack looked at the Doctor, waiting for an answer. "Why?" he eventually asked.

"Why?" The Doctor looked at the innocent looking bush, then at the garden it was in. "Because, this city should be light years away, and thousands of years ago."

Chapter Ten

Jack stared at the Doctor, not sure whether to believe him. "What, are you sure?" he said, as he watched the Doctor cautiously approach the now silent bush. "And I don't think it's a good idea to get too close to that thing."

"I'll be fine. It might chew me a bit, but it would spit me out, don't taste right," he said as he carefully parted the foliage.

Jack took one more look at the man lying on the grass, frustrated that there was nothing they could do for him. He stood up and joined the Doctor.

"How do we kill it?" he said, eyeing the greenery suspiciously.

"We, I think you mean me," the Doctor said, and before Jack could stop him, he dived into the bush.

*******************

Jack paced in front of the bush, indecision warring with worry inside his gut. For the last few minutes there had been silence, whereas before there had had been much cursing, in several alien languages. Now the silence was getting to him, and he was all for jumping into the fray himself.

Then the bush burst into life, and a dishevelled, scratched Doctor emerged, face exuding triumph.

"No overgrown weed is going to get the better of me, hah!" the Doctor said.

He turned serious afterwards, and looked back at the bush. "I'm sorry, but I think it might have got one of the scientists." He held up a small leather bound notebook, that had the unmistakable dark stains of dried blood blotched over the cover.

Jack took the notebook from the Doctor, leafed through the first few pages. "It's Dr. Harrison's, we've been looking for him."

"I'm afraid there's not much to find, the vine eats pretty much everything," the Doctor said. "But that's one vine that won't."

Jack closed the notebook, pocketed it, and looked at the Doctor. "Now, what did you say about this city not belonging here?"

************************

The Doctor didn't answer at first, lost as he was in some far away thought. "Hmm, sorry, yes, the city, did I say that, slip of the tongue. Meant to say, that plant shouldn't have been here."

Jack looked at the Doctor; there was something he wasn't telling. He knew it hadn't been a slip of the tongue. "Are you sure?" he said.

"Absolutely," the Doctor said. "I think we should get back to the others. I can't guarantee there aren't more of those vines."

Jack radioed the other assistant, who gave the Doctor a suspicious look, when he saw his now deceased compatriot. It didn't help that the Doctor was examining the body a little too enthusiastically.

"Doctor, leave it," Jack said and dragged him away. "Like you said, it's time to get back. Plus I want to know what the hell happened after you fell."

***************

The camp was silent; everybody's enthusiasm was dampened by the death of two of the team, but brightened a little by the unexpected return of Dr. Smith.

The Doctor fidgeted as Dr. Jefferies insisted on checking him, and cleaning the bloody welts made by the vines.

"Carnivorous plant life," Professor Simmons said. "That sort of flora shouldn't exist, the unfortunate Dr. Harrison may have discovered a new species."

The Doctor shot the Professor a look of disdain. "I think the death of two people, are just a little more important, don't you think," he said.

"Of course, but they knew the risks. They were being well paid."

The Doctor stood up abruptly, scattering cotton wool and iodine. "Really, I don't think flesh eating plant life was part of the pay packet," he said quietly, and stalked off towards the edge of the camp.

Jack got up as well. "I'll go with him, he's had a tough day, we all have."

"Haven't we just," Dr. Jefferies said.

She managed to slip her fingers over the Doctor's wrist whilst cleaning a particularly deep welt. At first she thought it was beacause his blood pressure was raised, but then she definitely felt four steady pulses. They were too strong and regular to be anything else; the man in front of her was an impossibility. She smiled, here they were in a city that shouldn't exist, and right in front of her had sat another thing that shouldn't exist. She would definitely being keeping a close eye on Dr. Smith, if that was his name.

***************************

It took several minutes for Jack to find the Doctor. He'd climbed onto the wall of the city, and was staring at the storm that was still raging against the wall. He was lost once more in a world of his own, his brow creased in that look of concentration and concern.

Jack quietly moved next to him, and stood silently, trying to see what he could obviously see. "Penny for them," he finally said.

The Doctor said nothing at first, and then he spoke softly, almost too softly to hear. "You did hear me properly, this city, it's an outpost of a long dead empire. They were called the Xanz, well that's the nearest I can translate it into human. This galaxy used to be part of their empire, well the very edges of their empire. The Earth really wasn't more than ice and simple life forms, and then for some reason they left. No-one knows why, just upped and left, some said they lost a war and were driven out, others that something happened here on Earth to drive them out. I've always wanted to find out, perhaps I finally will."

He stopped talking and seemed to be listening, eyes narrowed. "There's something out there, Jack, I can feel it."

Jack looked out to where the Doctor was looking, strained to see what he was looking at, but all he could see was snow.

***********************

The wind suddenly picked up in intensity, and the Doctor stiffened, very much like a gundog, suddenly alert. The keening howl he had heard back at the first camp, echoed against the wall. He looked down, and through the wind driven snow, he could see the snow churning and twisting.

They both stepped back as a plume of snow erupted upwards, tendrils almost reaching before falling away.

"Interesting," was all the Doctor said, before walking back towards the steps.

Jack had to jog to catch up with him; the Doctor was being annoyingly enigmatic. He finally caught up with him as he approached the camp.

"Wait up, there's something your not saying," he said, grabbing hold of the Doctor's arm, pulling him round.

The Doctor's eyes flashed golden for a moment, then settled back to their familiar brown. "We really should move further into the city, it's not safe here, those walls aren't as stable as they look." He pulled his arm free from Jack's grasp, and continued walking towards the camp.

*******************

"Move? What on earth for? Who knows what there is further in, besides man-eating plants. I'm not moving from this spot," Professor Johnson said.

"I really think we should," the Doctor said, his eyes straying towards the wooden gates.

"And why should we?" Julia asked.

"Because we should," the Doctor said again, his words hastened by urgency.

"I don't think that's a good enough reason," Professor Simmons said, suspicion in his voice. "Until you explain yourself , we are going nowhere."

As the Professor stopped talking, a gust of wind rattled the gates, almost, but not quite breaking the bolts.

They all looked over towards the gates, as another gust slammed against the wood.

"Wait a minute, that doesn't sound like wind," Jack said.

"That sounds like something trying to get in," Professor Daniels said.

**********************

The Doctor, Jack and Professor Simmons had moved closer to the gates.

"Can you hear…?" the Professor said.

With sudden violence, the wooden gate splintered, and snowed poured in at an incredible rate. Within seconds the snow was piling at their feet, lying in an even carpet.

The Doctor frowned, had he caught movement in the forming snow. Then the snow began to churn like a whirlpool, and that howl filled the Doctor's ears again.

The Doctor grabbed hold of Jack and the Professor and pulled, and said the one word that always struck fear in Jack's heart.

"Run!!!"

**Chapter Eleven**

Jack ran, herding the others in front of him. He could hear the Doctor behind him, breathing heavily, still not as fit as he should be Jack thought absently.

Even as they ran, the snow was driving between Jack and the rest of the group. Dear god, whatever it was, was cutting himself and the Doctor off from the rest of the group. It was acting like a predator, separating the weaker members of the herd.

The Doctor suddenly appeared at Jack's side. "They have to go up," he said breathlessly. "Go!" he said and slowed.

Jack increased his pace, leaping over the pursuing snow. He felt an icy tendril try to grab his feet; he twisted, performed a rolling dive, was on his feet in seconds and kept going.

"Up, get higher!" he yelled, grabbing hold of a tiring Dr. Jefferies, and propelled her forward.

He looked round frantically for the highest point, and spotted it. It was the half submerged building they'd seen earlier, water and snow don't mix, right?

The others seemed to pick up on his thoughts, and swerved towards the water, splashing in at a run, before swimming.

Jack hauled himself out of the water, and climbed wearily to the top of the building. He'd been right, the pursuing snow stopped at edge of the water, moving back and forth in a frustrated swirl. He looked round and saw the remaining scientists, but where were the Doctor and the other assistant.

************************

The Doctor slowed almost to a walk as he saw the others receding up the path. He hoped they would notice the half submerged building, hoped it would have the desired effect.

He approached the same building, and saw whatever it was moving back and forth on the edge of the water. He stopped a few feet away from it, rummaged in his pocket and found a safety pin. Rolling up his sleeve, he jabbed the point in his wrist, letting the blood drip onto the snow.

The snow in front of him stopped moving, and something under it circled, until it was facing the Doctor.

"Come on then, here I am, nice and fresh," he muttered.

The something suddenly darted forward, straight as an arrow towards the Doctor. It smelt the warmth of fresh blood and flesh, and it was so hungry.

The Doctor stood his ground, waiting for it to come as close as he dared. He was about to take off, when the something suddenly veered away, heading towards a group of buildings.

The Doctor looked towards the area, and his stomach turned over in horror.

The last remaining assistant had trapped himself, unable to get through the small gap to the water, unable to retreat as snow had blocked his way. He could see the something coming towards him, and tried to scramble up the wall of the nearest building.

He only managed to get half way, when the something reared up; tendrils of snow wrapping themselves around him.

The Doctor sprinted across the ground; he stumbled suddenly, his foot catching on a snow hidden stone. He fell heavily, the air knocked out of him. He dragged himself up, stumbled forward, the screams of the man now echoing in his ears.

He skidded to a halt, threw himself forwards, grabbing hold of the hand that was scrabbling for any kind of purchase. It then became a gruesome tug–o-war between the Doctor and the something, but the something was winning.

The Doctor pulled hard, and when he felt the something give a little, he thought he stood a chance. Then there came the wet tearing noise of flesh being separated, and the hand he had tight hold of slackened. He suddenly fell backwards, tumbling into the snow.

He lay exhausted, until he felt something wet against his face. He realised he was still holding the hand of the unfortunate assistant, well a hand and part of an arm. He dropped it with a cry of disgust, scrambled up and looked over to the killing spot.

The snow was churning, and he thought it looked too much like it was eating. He backed away; none too soon, as the snow erupted, ejecting a wet sticky mass of bone and unwanted flesh, viscera splattering his coat and face.

The snow started to circle again, like a shark sniffing for blood. The Doctor then remembered his own wound, turned on his heel and dashed for the water, the something in pursuit.

*******************

Jack had seen the Doctor approach the pacing something, had seen him jab something in his wrist. Fear twisted in his gut, the Doctor was using himself as bait. His view of the stand-off was obscured by a flurry of snow. He saw the Doctor dash towards some buildings to his right, stumble, fall, recover and carry on. After that he couldn't see him, obscured as he was by the buildings.

The he saw him dashing across the snow, and saw something moving in the snow, it was chasing him!

With a hurried "Stay!" to the group, he began climbing down the building, trying to keep tabs on the Doctor, and his footing.

A splash told him that the Doctor had got into the water. He twisted round as he approached the water's edge. He could see the Doctor swimming strongly towards him, but to his horror, he saw something that was impossible.

The water behind the Doctor was starting freeze, slowly at first, then it gained speed, racing towards the Doctor. The Doctor seemed to sense it and increased his pace, keeping just out of reach of the spreading ice.

Jack leant out as far as he could, arm stretched out, hand waiting for the Doctor to grasp it.

*****************************

The Doctor dived into the icy water, the something inches behind him. He felt the temperature of the water suddenly dip, the something had being holding back, it was in the water.

He heard the sudden crackle of ice forming, could feel the water turning to a deadly slushy. He looked up, saw Jack climbing down the building, and increased his stroke.

He sensed the ice coming closer, almost on his heels. He put his head down and swam, clawing blindly for something to haul himself out of the water with.

A strong hand suddenly grasped his, no wait, two hands now, and he was hauled quickly out of the water, just as the ice closed around the edge of the building.

The Doctor allowed himself to be guided up to the top of the building by Jack and Professor Johnson, who had climbed down after Jack.

He sat on the only piece of flat stonework, shivering violently , looking down at the frozen water, which seemed to be breaking up. He watched as the ice retreated, not stopping until it returned to the land, and the snow began its frustrated pacing.

"What in god's name is that thing?" Professor Johnson said, staring at the churning snow.

"D-d-don't k-n-now," the Doctor said between chattering teeth. "C-c-carnivorous, f-f-fast. I'm s-s-sorry, c-c-couldn't s-save," he stopped talking, as it was too much of an effort.

knelt down in front of him. "He's freezing, we really need to get of this building, we all need a fire and shelter."

Jack stood up, looked down at the now unfrozen water, and the thing that still prowled the water's edge. "There must be another way off this place."

A shout from Professor Daniels and Simmons caught his attention.

"Over here, it looks like a set of steps, they're a little broken up, but they lead right out onto the road."

Jack jogged over to them, and looked for himself, and then back at the Doctor, who was still shivering. "Okay, we're dammed if we don't move, and dammed if we do. We have to chance it."

****************************

The short trip down the stairs proved just as hazardous as the flight from the something had been. Their luck seemed to be holding, as the fallen building seemed to be blocking the snows' progress. They had to negotiate several large gaps in the steps, but finally managed to reach the ground.

Jack and Professor Simmons selected a large building close enough so that they could see the snow coming, but far enough away to allow them some escape time. The house they entered could have been in use, as furniture and domestic wares were still intact.

Jack set about starting a fire, taking wood from a still full pile. This city was becoming more like the Marie Celeste by the minute, without the killer snow.

Professor Daniels had searched the rest of the house, and had found blankets, which he was now handing out.

Professor Simmons had opened one of the cupboards, there was still foodstuff. It looked like a human food store from the Stone Age, root vegetables, and what looked like some kind of stock. At least they would have something warm in their bellies. Now all they had to do was find something to cook it in.

*******************

An hour later, Jack handed the Doctor a bowl of steaming vegetable broth. "Here, this'll take the chill of your bones."

"Thanks," the Doctor said. At least he'd stopped shivering, and could talk without stuttering.

He waited until Jack had settled next to him, his own bowl balanced on his lap.

"I'm beginning to see why the Xanz left, that thing could have slaughtered them all. But I don't think it's the only reason."

He stared into the fire, sipping slowly at his broth. "There's something here Jack, not that snow thing, nor the vines."

"Well, it is an alien city," Jack said. "There could have been all kinds of alien tech left behind."

"No, the Xanz would have taken that with them, there's something here that's older, way older, and far more dangerous." He fell into silence after that, just stared into the fire, watching the flames.

Jack sighed, finished his broth, and settled down for the few hours' sleep he would get, before it was his watch.

The kitchen fell into silence, only the fire and the Doctor belying life in the house.

***************************

Outside, beyond the half-submerged building, the snow still churned, silently prowling the waters edge. Then a low humming filled the air, and the snow turned towards it, and very much like an obedient hound, it moved off in the direction of the sound.

For now its hunger would have to wait, its master was calling.

**Chapter Twelve**

The Doctor was still staring into the fire, a million thoughts whirling in his head. This city, the thing in the snow, the creature under the snow. Why the Xanz had left, and what that something was that kept touching and then retreating from his mind.

He almost missed the figure slipping past Professor Daniels, whose watch it was. The Doctor recognised the silhouette as that of Professor Simmons. With a quick look at the sleeping blanket that was Jack, he got up, slipped past the Professor as well, and followed.

********************

The Doctor stopped at the corner of a building, when Professor Simmons stopped, and looked round. He shrugged and continued walking, back towards the half-submerged building.

The Doctor waited a few seconds before rounding the corner, trying his best not to make any noise. He followed the Professor until he came to the half-submerged building, and appeared to be fishing in the water for something. After a few minutes of feeling in the water, the Professor pulled a small metal box out of the water, and laid it on the ground.

The Doctor wished he could have got a little closer, but then he would have blown his cover. He narrowed his eyes. That looked suspiciously like a control box, he thought, as the Professor opened it, revealing an array of lights and switches.

His suspicions were proved when a low humming noise started emitting from the box, and on the far side of the water, the snow began to churn and twist.

It suddenly rose in the air, and took on a distorted shape, and the Doctor could see the faint outlines of a body, at least three metres high. It began to pace back and forth and then hesitantly at first, stepped into the water.

The Doctor moved slightly, his foot hit a loose stone, sending it tumbling. Silently cursing, he tried to make himself small, but to no avail.

"There's no point in hiding, my pet will sniff you out. So, if you don't want to end up as its next meal, show yourself!"

The Doctor sighed and stood up, eyeing the swirling shape just leaving the water.

"Ah, Doctor Smith, if that's who you really are. Please, move a little closer," the Professor said, drawing a hand-gun.

"Talking of whom, you're not Professor Simmons," the Doctor said as he walked towards the Professor.

"Very good, how did you see through my little ruse?"

"Oh, I came across your handiwork earlier. I must say it's very poetic, your pet eating your assassins, well one of them."

"Yes, I'm afraid it gets very hungry. If I didn't have the controller, it would eat me too. It's quite impartial, we're all food. Now, enough of the chit-chat. You strike me as something more than a Torchwood drone. I was trying to figure you out, see who you really were, why Captain Harkness seemed to be deferring to you. Then Miss Sanderson fitted the last piece of the jigsaw, I don't think you're human at all. That Dr. Smith has saved your life."

The Doctor shrugged. "That makes a change, it usually means someone trying to kill me. Alright, I'm not Dr. Smith, I'm just the Doctor. But if its alien tech you're after, you're out of luck, it's all gone."

"Oh, I know that, but not everything in this city came with them. I think there was something here before they were here, and I think you know it. So shall we go and find it," the professor said, waving the gun towards what looked like a hole in the ground.

The Doctor didn't move, but stared hard at the Professor. "What about the others? If you hurt them, I won't help you."

"Really, Doctor, what do you take me for? They're my insurance, co-operate and they'll be safe. Lie to me, and they will suffer. Now please, I really don't want to injure you. I find it a lot harder when my guide is bleeding to death."

The Doctor didn't believe anything the Professor said, but if it could get him away from the snow creature, and closer to getting his hands on that control box, he'd play along. Plus, if whoever this man was knew about the power source, then he had to be there. If it was the same thing that was still flitting around the edges of his mind, then whatever it was really shouldn't fall into the hands of the likes of Simmons.

Taking one last look at the snow formed creature, he walked towards the hole.

***************************

Jack came awake with a start, someone was shaking him. It couldn't be time for his watch yet. He opened sleep filled eyes, to find Professor Daniels shaking him.

"Captain Harkness, wake up!" he said urgently.

"What?" Jack said sleepily.

"It's Professor Simmons and Doctor Smith, they're gone."

Jack was instantly awake. If just the Doctor had gone, then he wouldn't be so worried, he always turned up, like a bad penny. But two people missing, that set off his trouble radar. "How long?" he asked, as he strapped on his holster, and checked his weapon.

"Not sure, I didn't see them leave. I don't know how they got past me."

Jack spared the man a withering look, before he was out the door, closely followed by the rest of the group.

"They could have gone anywhere," Dr Jefferies said.

Jack looked up and down the road. "No, I think they went back towards the water, well Doctor Smith anyway. I get the feeling though, that your Professor Simmons, wasn't being totally honest with you."

Without another word, Jack led the group back towards the half submerged building.

*********************

As they approached the building, Jack knew his feelings were right. They had found two fresh sets of footprints in the snow, both leading towards the water. However, there was no sign of the Doctor or the Professor, and the footprints had stopped in the middle of the area between the water and the nearby buildings.

More worrying was the lack of the snow creature, which made them very wary. Jack was beginning to get frustrated, he couldn't go looking for the Doctor whilst he had the others to protect.

"Captain Harkness, over here!" Dr. Jefferies called.

She was breaking through what looked like an ice puddle. "Captain, this isn't a puddle, it's a flight of stairs!"

Jack was over in a flash, and was staring down. She was right; it was a set of steps, receding into darkness. He was about to step down, when he heard the panicked shouts of the others.

He looked up, and saw with horror, that the snow creature was back!

*******************

The Doctor had tried his best to dawdle, but the Professor was having none of it.

"I think a lesson in what disobedience brings is in order," he said, and took out the small control box.

The Doctor stared in horror. "No, what are you doing!?" he shouted.

A few seconds later, the sounds of human panic echoed down the tunnel.

"What have you done?" the Doctor whispered.

**Chapter Thirteen**

"The stairs!" Jack yelled. "Get down the stairs!"

But his words went unheeded. Fear and panic had taken hold. He grabbed hold of Julia Sanderson and physically threw her down the steps before racing after Professor Johnson, who was being pursued.

He was within grabbing distance when the Professor was dragged off his feet, and began disappearing under the snow. "No!" Jack cried and dived for the Professor, grabbing hold of his arms and pulling hard.

The professor shot forward with a cry of pain. He landed on top of Jack, who quickly rolled him away. He felt more than saw someone run past him, and heard the creature turn in the snow.

Whoever it was had distracted it. Jack was too busy trying to stop the Professor from bleeding to death, red staining the snow beneath a huge gash in the Professor's leg.

Dr Jefferies appeared at his side and placed a hand over the wound. "Go, help the others," she said as she began tearing strips of her jacket.

Jack didn't spare her another glance, and took off in pursuit of the snow creature and the person it was chasing. However, to his surprise the creature was nowhere to be seen. There was no churning snow, no one running in panic.

"What the..?" Jack said, looking round in confusion. "Where the hell did it go?"

************************

The Doctor stared in horror as the Professor twisted a dial, closed the box, and put it away.

"Lesson learnt, I hope, Doctor?" The Professor smiled at him.

The Doctor gave the Professor a murderous stare, but nodded.

"Good, then shall we continue." The Professor gestured down the tunnel. "And please be careful where you tread. Unlike the others, you are not expendable, for now."

The Doctor turned away from the pointed weapon and looked down into the twilight lit tunnel. As they walked, he began to realise that this tunnel wasn't of Xanz design. It seemed human in design, but the walls were to smooth to have been cut by human tools.

He allowed a hand to trail along the ice, letting his mind open, feeling for any trace of something, but he only felt the cold. "You know, that was not a good thing you did. Hurting those people will only make me mad," he said casually, whilst keeping up the pace the Professor was setting.

"Oh, I realise that, I wouldn't expect anything less than you wanting to get your hands round my throat. It seems in some respects, aliens are no different to humans," the Professor laughed. "But, I'm afraid you anger will have to remain unsatisfied, but it may come in useful. The thing we're after will no doubt be well protected."

The Doctor quirked an eyebrow when the Professor said we. Well, that told him plenty; the Professor was only a servant, not the master.

"So, this thing must be something pretty powerful, it must cost a lot to fund a trip out here. It can't be cheap hiring assassins, forging files that can fool Torchwood, finding hungry snow creatures to control."

"So full of questions, for someone who's at the wrong end of a gun. Either you're not afraid of dying, or you're not a clever as you look."

The Doctor said nothing in reply, and they carried on in silence, until they reached a fork in the tunnel. He made to go to his left, but felt cold steel against his neck

"The other way, if you please, Doctor, that way leads to a very unpleasant creature."

"Let me guess, teeth, claws, in serious need of a breath mint," the Doctor said as he turned back.

"Ah, so you've met and survived. I lost several men to that particular guard dog. Interesting, I'm leaning towards keeping you alive."

The Doctor didn't say anything; he'd heard the sound of something moving up ahead.

But the Professor had noticed the slight tensing of his shoulders. "You heard it, good. It's the first of the traps."

He prodded the Doctor with the gun. "Continue, please."

*********************

The Doctor shook his head, but moved forward. As he moved up the tunnel, he heard the sound again. He stopped, and the sound stopped. He moved forward again, and the sound returned.

Narrowing his eyes, he took another step forwards.

It was only his hearing that saved him, as he heard the click of something being armed, and the almost silent hiss of something being loosed.

He ducked to his right, as a bolt hissed past his face, burying itself in the ice.

"Right, game on," he said, and took another step forward.

He tuned out the creaking of the ice, the drip of melt water. He steadied the beating of his hearts.

He took a step to his left, leant back, nearly overbalanced, as another bolt struck ice. With a slight wobble, he moved to his right.

This time, he was a little slow, and the bolt grazed his arm. He hissed in pain, but fought it down. He moved cautiously forward, acutely aware of the lack of warning.

Taking a deep breath, he began running, dodging left and right. He leapt over another bolt, and dived as three more hissed past. He performed a perfect gymnastic roll, and finished in a cat- like crouch.

There was a loud 'shunk' as a mechanism somewhere locked itself.

Breathing heavily, he straightened, his temper flaring again as the Professor strolled casually towards him.

"Very good, shall we proceed," he said, pointing with the gun again.

The Doctor glared at him, and then at the gun. "I won't move until you put that away. I'm not going to run."

The Professor considered his words for a minute. "Alright, but do remember your friends above," he said, pocketing the weapon. "Shall we?"

*********************

Jack crouched down next to Dr. Jefferies. "How is he?"

She shook her head. "I'm sorry, he bled out, it must have nicked an artery. This thing, seems to me its not acting like a predator at all. It only attacked when you started down those steps."

Jack nodded, "Yeah, more like a trained pit-bull." He looked at the body of Professor Johnson, then up at the doctor. "We have to move, I think it'll be safer down there, than up here, and I think that's where our two lost sheep are. I'll go round up Professor Daniels, you join Miss Sanderson down below."

"What about the Professor's body?" she asked.

"We don't have time for niceties, we'll have to leave him here," Jack said a little more coldly than he intended. He didn't wait for a reply, but ran off on the direction he had last seen the archaeologist run.

regarded the receding form of Captain Harkness. She had the awful feeling that he'd done this sort of thing before, and that death was something he'd seen too many times to be affected by it. She'd had her own suspicions when she'd not be aloud to see the medical records from the last expedition. They'd been even further aroused, when she had felt that strange pulse that belonged to Dr. Smith. Somewhere there was a connection between this expedition, the one that had gone before, this city and an impossibility called Dr Smith.

Shrugging her shoulders, she quickly kicked a layer of snow over the Professor's body and began to descend the steps.

"Miss Sanderson? Julia?" she said, trying not to let her nerves show in her voice.

She jumped when a voice came from behind her.

"Is that you, ?" The voice was followed by the beam of a torch, and then the worried face of Julia Sanderson.

"Oh, thank god, I thought that thing had got everybody," she said, and gave the doctor a relieved hug. "Where are the others?" she said, looking behind Susan.

"Captain Harkness has gone to find Professor Daniels, but I'm afraid Professor Johnson didn't make it."

Julia's hand flew to her mouth. "Did that thing eat him, do you think it ate the other two?"

"No, it didn't eat him, and I don't think it ate the others. Captain Harkness thinks they're down here somewhere."

Julia let out a weary breath, and slumped against the icy wall. "This is so not what I expected. I mean, a lost city is one thing, but killer snow, killer plant life, scientists who might not be scientists. As if that isn't enough, there's a top secret, don't mention the name military unit. This is getting more like a very bad science fiction movie, all the time."

smiled, she didn't know the half of it. If she told her about her suspicions, she might just explode.

"So, if that thing didn't eat Professor Simmons and Dr. Smith, where are they?"

**Chapter Fourteen**

The Doctor felt his way along the ice wall. It wasn't easy trying to avoid the razor sharp shards of rock, which were protruding from the wall. But when the only other choice was to fall down what could be an endless maw, shredded hands were preferable.

"Speed up, Doctor, some of these traps have time limits," the Professor called.

"I am not Olga Korbut," the Doctor muttered, but increased his speed, sensing, more than seeing he was near the other side.

He breathed a sigh of relief as a foot touched solid ground. He felt along the now thankfully smooth ice, searching for……found it.

At first nothing happened, and then a grating noise began, quietly at first, then almost ear-splitting. The ground beneath the Doctor's feet vibrated, and he watched as the gaping hole began to disappear beneath a ramp.

"Very good, keep up the good work. I beginning to see you as something of an asset, Doctor, we might yet find a use for you after this," the Professor said. "Please turn around."

The Doctor didn't move, only stared at the Professor, defiance in every line of his body.

"Really, Doctor, do I have to remind you of the penalties for disobedience. Now please turn around," the Professor ordered, this time enforcing the order with the presence of the control box.

The Doctor looked at the box, then at the Professor, sighed and turned round. He heard the familiar sound of handcuffs being applied.

"Sit," the Professor said, and did the same to his ankles with metal restraints. "Can't have you wandering off whilst I'm gone."

"Going somewhere?" the Doctor asked innocently.

"We all have someone to report to," was all the Professor said before standing up,shouldering the bag, much to the Doctor's chagrin, and walking down the tunnel.

The Doctor thumped his head against the ice in frustration. He was alone with just his thoughts for company.

It was then that the something chose to return.

*****************************

Jack followed the tracks left by Professor Daniels and found him. Well, what was left of him. He must have thought one of the gardens would be safer. That had been his undoing. He'd fallen victim to one of those vines.

Jack turned away from the remains, anger and disgust boiling inside him. This was turning into a slaughter. Someone was going to pay.

******************

Susan and Julia looked up at the sound of feet on the steps, both relieved when they saw it was Captain Harkness. Their relief was short-lived when they saw the grim expression on his face.

"Where's Professor Daniels?" Julia asked.

"He won't be coming, it's just us. We'd better move, this tunnel must lead somewhere," he said.

The trio walked for what seemed miles before they came to a fork in the tunnel.

"Which way?" Susan asked.

Jack looked at both tunnels. "We go left," he said.

***************************

The Doctor wasn't expecting the something to return as forcefully as it did. It hit him like a tidal wave, completely overwhelming his defences. Pain shot through his whole body, sending his muscles into spasms, causing the restraints to dig into his flesh.

He wasn't expecting to hear voices either, but they cut through his pain.

"He doesn't feel like the others, he feels interesting."

"He's older than he looks, he's ancient. His mind is full of questions, I like him. He is the one."

"Be cautious, we must not trust by his thoughts only. We must wait."

"I am sure he is the one, I felt his mind outside the city, and he fought the Kra'lax bravely, trying to save the little one."

"No, we must wait, he has only passed two of the traps, he has not succeeded yet."

"Aren't you forgetting the Kra'lax and the Maa'at, he was the first to survive them. I tell you, he will be the one."

"Enough, we must leave his mind, the other is returning. We shall watch and decide."

The voices faded away, and the Doctor heard the footsteps of the Professor returning. His head was still buzzing from the contact with whatever the something was… no, not somethings anymore. If he had heard voices, then they must have belonged to a somebody; in fact, several somebodys.

His thoughts were interrupted by the Professor. "Still here? Good, so you can follow orders. I hope you had a little rest, it's time to move on. The clock is ticking."

He removed the ankle restraints, and when the Doctor didn't get up quick enough, he hauled him up by his handcuffs. "Like I said, the clock is ticking, and time is money, as they say, move!" he said, shoving the Doctor ahead of him.

The Doctor stumbled forward, his head still buzzing from the intrusion. These traps weren't traps at all, they were tests!

*******************************

Jack was beginning to question whether he should have turned left. The tunnel didn't seem to be going anywhere, and he was sure it was getting narrower. He'd had time to think about the snow creature, and when it attacked. It was acting more like a guard dog, a controlled guard dog.

This whole place was beginning to look like one massive trap, and the best chance of surviving it was MIA.

He wished he'd been on his own. He could move at twice the speed, cover twice the ground. But the others were getting tired; the events of the last thirty-six hours were starting to take their toll.

"Okay, let's stop here, an hour's rest, then we move on," he said.

The two women sighed and sank to the floor, and Jack sat a few feet away.

Julia looked over at Captain Harkness; her head was full of questions, ones she still wanted answers to. She sidled over to where Jack was sitting, settled herself and drew in a breath.

"Captain, or may I call you Jack, I think the time for secrets is long gone. I know there's something more going on here. I think we have a right to know."

"And what do you think you should know?" Jack said sharply.

"Oh, like who is , and don't tell me he's working for you. I've noticed how you deferred to him. In fact, let me tell you what I think, I don't think he's human, or why would someone from Torchwood be so worried about him disappearing. You don't seem that concerned about Professor Simmons. In fact, you don't seem to care about anything but ."

Jack gave Julia a hard stare, judging whether he should tell them or not, Fine, there was a chance they wouldn't make it out of here, so why not.

"Okay, ladies, you want the truth, then here it is."

*****************

Jack had been expecting sounds of disbelief, but was surprised when both women merely nodded.

"I knew it, only an alien could have survived all those things," Julia said.

"Well, that would explain his unusual pulse, two hearts. I have so got to re-examine him, he's going to make medical history," Susan said.

"No, no examinations!" Jack said sharply. "I told you this in confidence. You breathe one word of this, and I'll make sure you're buried so deep, you'll never have existed."

The two looked at him, knew he meant it, and nodded.

Julia was about to ask another question when a distant roaring echoed down the tunnel. Jack was on his feet in an instant. "Stay here, don't move, and be quiet," he ordered, and walked slowly in the direction of the noise.

*********************

The Doctor tried to work his shoulders, they were beginning to ache from the pull of the handcuffs, and his head was pounding. "Can't you take these things off," he said.

"Soon, Doctor," the Professor said. "Unfortunately, this is as far as the other expedition got, so this is unknown territory to me. From now on, we are at the mercy of the gods."

The Doctor sighed and continued walking. Why was nothing ever simple, he thought, why did trouble come in more than threes? And he had a killer headache.

His lack of attention caused him to miss the small depression in the tunnel floor, and before he could or the Professor could react, the floor disappeared underneath his feet!

**Chapter Fifteen**

The Doctor landed heavily, and intense pain shot through his shoulders. He lay stunned, looking up at solid rock. The only plus was that the handcuffs had broken, probably when he hit the ground.

It didn't feel like he'd broken anything, but when he tried to get up, his right shoulder gave way, dislocated. Grimacing, he half crawled, half shuffled towards the nearest wall of the pit he was in.

Taking a few deep breaths, he swung his shoulder into the wall, biting off a cry of pain. He heard and felt his shoulder pop back into place. He took a few minutes to calm his hearts and dampen the pain, and then began to look round.

"Okay, may have escaped one prison, but out of the frying pan comes to mind," he said.

He twisted round when a grating noise came from behind him, and saw an opening appearing. He was about to move towards it when another opening appeared on the other side, then two more, until there was an opening on each wall.

He sighed. "Multiple choice, you're not making this easy, are you?" he said into the air.

Closing his eyes, he began, "Ip dip….. catch a Dalek by his…" and opened his eyes again. "Okay, let's see what Alice saw, shall we?" and disappeared feet first into the chosen opening.

******************

He wasn't quite sure what to expect as he slid feet first down the slope. He'd been half-expecting to end up back with Professor Simmons. He hadn't expected to find himself in a room full of mirrors.

"This is…different," he said, and then noticed he had no reflection. "Definitely different."

Then his own voice hissed behind him. "Killer!"

He whirled round, and saw his reflection staring back at him. Then his voice spoke again, this time from his right.

"Coward, you abandoned her!"

He turned again, and once more his reflection was staring at him, accusation in his eyes. "No, I…." he began, but was cut off by his own voice again.

"Liar!" another reflection hissed at him. "You couldn't even tell her, you gave her away, like she was nothing."

"Murderer, she wanted to stay," another said.

"I, she couldn't…" the Doctor stammered, beginning to feel the weight of the accusations.

"You were jealous, she was better than you, murderer."

"No!" he cried, and sank to his knees. "No, no, no!"

The reflections continued with their accusations, becoming more and more vociferous in their statements. "Spineless! You can't even defend yourself against yourself."

At those words, the Doctor blinked, and a look of realisation crossed his face. Of course, he'd got so lost in his own guilt, he'd forgotten that these traps weren't traps, they were tests.

This one was testing his inner-self. Hauling himself to his feet, he turned and faced the first accuser. "Killer, yes, I've killed, as a soldier, in war, guilty."

Then he turned to his next accuser. "Not a coward, I wanted her safe."

His first accuser started to fade away, as did his second. It was working, even though it caused him heartache to admit so many truths.

He turned to face his third accuser. "No, I gave her a life she could never have with me. It broke my heart to see her with him."

As the third accuser faded away, he rounded on the fourth and last accuser. "And as for Donna Noble, she was my friend, I couldn't let her die. So if saving her life makes me a murderer, then I plead guilty, and it had nothing to do with jealousy!"

By the time he had finished speaking,his temper had flared and was running white hot in his blood. "I don't have to justify myself, what's done is done. You can't change the past, not a single second of it, even if I could, I wouldn't. Someone once told me that everything has its time, and everything dies, and she was right."

His last accuser started to fade away, but was replaced by a white light that kept growing brighter, until it became burning bright. The Doctor closed his eyes against the brightness, could feel the heat of it.

He forced his eyes open and saw an opening appearing in front of him. He ran, that part of him that wanted to escape his demons, giving him speed.

******************************

Jack flattened himself against the ice, hoping that the thing ahead of him hadn't seen him or smelt him. Then he had the horrible thought that if he didn't stop it, it would find the others.

Taking a few minutes to be sure that it was heading his way, he stepped out into the middle of the tunnel. "Hey, beastie boy, you want some lunch!" he yelled, and instead of running from the creature, he ran towards it. He veered off at the last moment, running under the snapping jaws of the creature.

With an angry roar, it swivelled on clawed feet and began chasing the tiny thing that had taunted it. Jack didn't look back; he just kept running. He had had no idea as to whether he could outrun it, but if he could lead it away from the others then it would be worth being eaten.

He didn't notice the tunnel getting wider and brighter. The only things he could hear was the roars of the creature and the scraping of claws on ice. It wasn't until he nearly hit the wall that he realised he was trapped.

He turned, and saw the creature barrelling towards him, mouth open sharp incisors gleaming in the brightening light……. wait a minute, brightening light?

********************

The light kept getting brighter, until it was almost too painful to look at it. Jack had to shield his eyes, and the creature had skidded to a halt. He looked into the light and thought he must be seeing things.

A figure was emerging from the light, and at speed, and as the figure came closer Jack recognised the silhouette, and that he was running into danger.

*****************

The Doctor ran, seeing only the end of the bright light in front of him. He didn't care where it ended, as long as he was away from his demons.

He ran out of the light and straight in front of a set of angry jaws!

**Chapter Sixteen**

The Doctor skidded to a halt, when he saw something at the edge of his vision. He turned, and his eyes widened in surprise.

"Jack!" he said, pleased to see his friend. Then his words were drowned out by the roar of the creature, who had recovered from the blinding light.

"Doctor, move!" Jack yelled, and began running, acutely aware that there was too much distance, and not enough time.

**********************

The Doctor whirled round, just as a massive paw swept towards his head, massive claws filling his vision.

Twisting to his left, he felt the breeze from the paw, as it narrowly missed his head, but clipped the sleeve of his coat.

The impetus was enough to spin him round. He landed heavily on his recently dislocated shoulder, and he felt it give again. He tried to scrabble away, putting as much weight on the injured shoulder as he could

The creature, sensing his weakness, took a step forward, mouth open, hot breath fluttering the Doctor's hair. He closed his eyes, steeling himself for the killer bite.

It never came.

Instead, there was the crack-bang of gun-fire. He was almost deafened by the screech the creature let out. It reared up, landed with a ground vibrating thud, shook its head and focused on the Doctor again.

Another shot rang out, and this time the creature staggered, a bloody hole appearing in its chest. It let out a howl of pain, turned away from the Doctor and fled, leaving a bloody trail behind it.

The Doctor stared wide-eyed at the fleeing creature, confusion warring with relief at not dying. He looked round, unsure of where the shots had come from, then he saw where.

*********************

Jack had started running, as soon as he had seen the Doctor skid to a halt. He saw the creature's paw bear down on the Doctor. He saw the Doctor twist away, and thought the creature claws had caught the Doctor.

He saw the Doctor fall to the ground, saw him try to scrabble away, favouring his right shoulder. He saw the jaws close in on the Doctor. After that, everything seemed to be tinged with a red haze, as anger rose red hot in his blood.

Skidding to a halt, he drew his gun and fired, knowing he could hit the Doctor, but taking the chance anyway. He saw the creature rear up, thought it would turn tail and run. Then it lunged for the Doctor again, and he fired once more. This time, he could see he had hit the creature, a bloody hole appearing in its chest. A wave of relief washed over him, as the creature staggered, let out a howl of pain, turned tail and ran.

He quickly holstered his gun, and raced over to the still seated Doctor, concern tightening his stomach.

********************

The Doctor tried to take it all in. He was still dazed from his ordeal in the room of mirrors, and then almost being eaten by the creature that had chased him earlier. Anger was starting to replace confusion, as he remembered those screams echoing down the tunnel and Professor Simmons' casual attitude to people dying.

He tried to push himself off the floor but was painfully reminded of his dislocated shoulder, and promptly collapsed back to a sitting position.

*****************************

Jack skidded to a halt, just missing the Doctor as he sat heavily back down on the ice. "Doctor, you're hurt," he said, reaching for the Doctor's shoulder.

The Doctor flinched away from Jack, anger flashing in his eyes. "Stay away, Jack!" he hissed.

Jack frowned. He could see the anger in those darkening eyes, felt it coming off him in waves. What had happened after he had disappeared? If Simmons had hurt him, Jack would personally feed him to one of those vines.

"Doctor, I need to look at your shoulder, it looks dislocated," he said gently, and moved closer to him.

This time the Doctor didn't flinch, but nodded, allowing Jack to examine his shoulder.

"It's definitely out, I gonna have to pop it back in, this will hurt."

"Just do it," the Doctor said absently, his mind obviously on something else. He didn't even flinch when Jack pulled sharply on his shoulder. He murmured thanks, stood up and was striding away before Jack could stop him.

"Hey, where are you going!" he shouted, hurrying after him.

"Unfinished business," was all the Doctor said.

Jack caught up with him, placed a hand on the Doctor's uninjured shoulder. "Just wait."

The Doctor whirled round. "What is it, Captain?" he said, impatience giving his voice a hard edge.

Jack was taken aback; he hadn't used his title for a long time. "We're not going anywhere, not until you tell me what's got you so pissed."

The Doctor shrugged out of Jack's grip, and let out a frustrated sigh. "It's this place, it's so wrong. Traps that aren't traps, people dying, a power source that shouldn't exist, voices in my head, and another power mad human wanting something they shouldn't have. Apart from that, I'm fine."

Jack smiled. "Life is never dull with you around, that's for sure."

The Doctor looked at Jack, gave him a crooked smile, and was about to say something when screams echoed down the tunnel.

***********************

Jack and the Doctor rounded the corner together, but the place that Jack had left the two women was empty. The only evidence that they had been there was the scattered pieces of a camera, and worryingly spots of blood leading away from the broken camera.

"Simmons," the Doctor growled.

He moved off without a word to Jack, who knew better than to ask, but just followed. The Doctor seemed to know where he was going, and judging by the look on his face, when they got wherever they were going, it wasn't going to be pleasant.

****************************

Julia glared at Professor Simmons, as she wrapped a makeshift bandage round Susan's arm. "Bastard, you didn't have to shoot her."

"Oh, I think I did, how else will I to get my wayward guide to come back to me. You will make the perfect bait."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Julia said.

"Please don't try my patience, I only really need one of you. I think that little commotion back there was my guide surviving another trap. Shall we move, now, if you don't mind," the Professor ordered.

Julia helped Susan get to her feet, and giving him another dirty look, walked ahead of him, up the tunnel.

*************************

The Doctor had been silent since they'd discovered the blood and the broken camera, and the silence worried Jack. It meant he was bottling up whatever had happened after he had disappeared.

Jack finally decided he'd had enough of the silence, and stepped in front of the Doctor. When the Doctor tried to move past him, he placed a hand on the Doctor's chest. "You're not moving another inch until you tell me what the hell's been happening, and what Simmons wants."

The Doctor glared at Jack. "I don't have time for this, Jack," he said and tried to push past.

Jack pressed firmly on the Doctor's chest. "Yes, there is time, he needs them alive. He doesn't have a bargaining chip, if they're dead. So, we have time, spill it."

The Doctor looked at Jack and seemed to visibly deflate. He stepped back, leant against the wall, let out a sigh, and the words tumbled out.

Jack listened, never interrupting, holding his temper, as the Doctor spoke about the control box that Simmons had. His heart ached when he described his ordeal in the room of mirrors, the guilt shadowing his eyes. He was sure there was still something the Doctor wasn't saying, but the Doctor had stopped talking.

"We need to go Jack, we have to find them. I can't let him get his hands on it," he said, barging past Jack and moving off.

Jack frowned. "Hands on what?" but the Doctor was nearly out of earshot, and he had to run to catch him up.

He saw the Doctor round a corner, and quickened his pace to catch up. He stopped dead when he rounded the corner, not sure what he was seeing. The Doctor was floating a few inches above the ground, surrounded by blue light, which seemed to be growing in intensity.

He moved forward, but found he couldn't get close to the Doctor. Somehow the blue light was preventing him. He could see the Doctor's face. It was contorted in silent pain as the blue light glowed brighter but also began to constrict.

Jack watched, frustration building. His friend was hurting, and there was nothing he could do!

**Chapter Seventeen**

The Doctor turned the corner, and had only gone a few steps, before the blue light surrounded him. He gasped as he felt something constrict around his chest, felt it squeezing his hearts. If this was a test, it was going to be a painful one.

*********************

Jack tried to get closer once again, but this time was repelled forcefully. Growling in frustration, he got up and moved forward again.

This time, he was thrown backwards, skidded along the ice and hit the tunnel wall. He struggled up, eyes fixed on the figure of the Doctor, still painfully engulfed in the blue light.

The more Jack looked at it, the more he saw there was something not quite right about it.

Steeling himself, he approached the blue light, expecting to be thrown back once more. So he was surprised when he wasn't.

Then he saw the truth of it. It hadn't thrown him back, because it wasn't there, it was only in his mind!

"Doctor, it's not real!" he yelled, hoping the Doctor could hear him.

****************************

The Doctor felt the pressure increasing on his chest, could feel his ribs starting to give under it. Not long now, he thought, and then it would be over, for this body anyway.

Then a voice came from somewhere, very faint, but he swore it said "It's not real."

At those words, he felt the pressure lesson, just a fraction.

Could that voice be right? Was this just an illusion? But the pain felt real, the pressure on his ribs felt real. So, it had to be real, right?

Once again, he felt the pressure lessen just that little bit. That voice must be right, this wasn't real, not the weight on his chest, the sound of his ribs cracking, the air being squeezed from his lungs.

Then all of a sudden, he could breath, and his ribs reformed, the pain fell away from his chest.

The pressure and the light were gone as quickly as they had appeared. With a surprised gasp, he put one foot on the icy floor, and would have slipped if a pair of strong hands hadn't caught him.

"Whoa, that was scary!" he breathed, as Jack steadied him. "Haven't been fooled by one of those for centuries!" he said in a tone that was way too cheery for Jack's liking.

Jack looked into the Doctor's eyes. His pupils were dilated, and the brown was almost covered by the black. If he didn't know better, it looked like the Doctor was high. He grabbed hold of the Doctor's shoulders, and shook him, it was that, or slap him.

He smiled when he got the response he wanted.

"Oww! Mind the shoulder, dislocated, twice, remember."

The Doctor stopped when he saw the look on Jacks' face. "Was I babbling, sorry. That thing must have been stuffed with psychic energy, gave me quiet a buzz."

He was about to go off on another rant, but Jack interrupted. "Doc," he said, knowing the shortened version of his name would get his attention. "Ladies to save, power sources to find, bad guy to stop."

The Doctor sighed, any sign of joviality disappeared, replaced by his usual unreadable mask.

"Yes, you're right, c'mon," he said, and began jogging back towards the point where the tunnel split.

****************************

Julia carefully placed her hand in the hole that had opened in front of her. She was all too aware of the gun being held to Susan's head.

She held her breath, waiting for something to grasp or slice off her hand. She breathed a sigh of relief when the only thing that happened was that a section of the tunnel wall slid to one side.

"Well done, Miss Sanderson, it seem you have luck on your side."

"I'll be lucky if you drop dead," she muttered, loud enough for the Professor to hear.

"Manners, Miss Sanderson. Shall we continue?" the Professor said.

The trio walked through the opening, Julia helping Susan, who still felt a little woozy.

They were too focused to notice the wall slide silently back into place. They didn't notice that the tunnel brightened, and missed the two glowing orbs that appeared.

********************************

"This is not right, it should not be. If the little thing finds it, it will contaminate the Flow. Only the other should touch it. We should stop this little thing."

One of the orbs glowed brighter for a second.

"No, you know we cannot. We are only here to observe. We cannot help the other, he must do this himself. It is the final test."

"I know this, but what if he fails."

"Then our fate, and that of our world is sealed, we will burn."

******************************************

Jack would have stopped to ask about the crossbow bolts buried in the wall, and the glass sharp protrusions he had to swerve to avoid. But the Doctor hadn't lessened his pace; he was keeping up a steady jog.

It looked to Jack like he was hunting, and he knew exactly who the prey was. So he wasn't expecting the Doctor to stop sharply, and he almost ran into him.

"What is it?" he asked as the Doctor crouched down on his haunches and started running his hand over the floor.

"Looking for, ah, there it is."

There was a small click, and Jack jumped back when the floor disappeared just in front of his feet.

With a grunt of satisfaction, the Doctor stood up. "The mirror trap," was all he said.

After a few seconds of silence, he took out his sonic and ran it over the hole. He sighed, put the screwdriver away and spoke.

"I can't close it. Do you think you can jump it?" he asked.

Jack looked at the gap, measured it silently, and then nodded. "I'll go first, your shoulder isn't up to catching me, if I don't make it," he said.

The Doctor looked like he was going to argue, but nodded instead, following Jack back up the tunnel.

He stood silently, as Jack turned, began running, leapt and cleared the gap with ease.

He looked up the tunnel, could see the gap. It wasn't that he couldn't make the distance, he could. That wasn't it at all, it was the distant voices he could hear whispering in his mind.

"Murderer, coward, killer," echoed like doubt.

"C'mon Doctor!" he heard Jack yell.

Taking a deep breath, letting it out to calm his nerves, he ran. As he approached the blackness that was the gap, the voices grew louder in his head. He almost stumbled, but righted himself and picked up his pace.

***************************

Jack watched the Doctor, saw him hesitate slightly. He called out to him and waited for him to jump. He watched the Doctor run towards the gap. Suddenly the Doctor seemed to falter, as if he'd stumbled on something, and Jack's stomach twisted in concern.

Relief flooded through him when he saw the Doctor pick up speed, leap and clear the gap, landing cat-like almost next to him. "You okay?" he asked as the Doctor looked back at the gap.

"I'm fine," the Doctor replied. "We need to get on. I've got an awful feeling that our pseudo- scientist is getting close to that power source."

Jack knew that he wasn't really fine, but knew that he would never admit it, not even to him.

"Time's wasting, let's go," the Doctor said, and moved off.

*************************

Julia stopped and stared open mouthed at what lay below. They'd been walking slightly downhill for a while now, when the tunnel suddenly widened, and the path turned into a set of stone steps.

"I don't believe what I'm seeing!" she gasped, but wasn't given the time to take it all in as she was encouraged to descend the steps by the Professor's gun.

***************************

The Doctor hadn't spoken since their jump over the gap, nor did it look like he was inclined to. He was currently running his hands over a section of the tunnel wall, stopping every so often, as if checking something. He suddenly left out a satisfied sound and stepped back when a section of the wall slid back. With a glance at Jack, he was through the gap before it had fully opened, leaving Jack to squeeze through.

By the time Jack had gone through, the Doctor was halfway down the tunnel, which was steadily descending. Not wanting to be left behind, he ran after the Doctor, who was now almost out of sight. In fact, he was out of sight.

Jack ran faster, rounded a corner, and had to skid to a halt. The Doctor was standing on what looked like the edge of a very long drop.

As Jack approached, he heard the Doctor whisper, "That's impossible."

**Chapter Eighteen**

The Doctor didn't wait for Jack to squeeze through the door; he had taken off at a run. When he'd laid his hand on the wall, he'd felt something very wrong.

It had made his skin crawl.

Now he was standing on the edge of a set of stone steps, staring at something that could have been straight from a horror movie. "No, no, no," he said, and before Jack, who had just caught up with him, could stop him, he was running down the steps.

*******************

Jack stopped at the bottom of the steps, and took in what lay in front of him; in fact, all around. In every direction were statues carved from ice. It was like a frozen version of the Terracotta Soldiers.

He saw the Doctor looking intently at one of the statues, a look of consternation on his face. "What's the problem, the Xanz not good at sculpture," Jack said, and moved next to the Doctor.

The Doctor gently touched the face of the statue in front of him. "I'm sorry," he said. "Take a closer look, Jack, do you think these statues are a bit too life like."

Jack looked at the statue nearest to him, and then saw what the Doctor saw. "It can't be," he breathed.

"Now I know why no-one knows what happened they never made it out of the city," the Doctor said quietly.

Jack looked over at the Doctor. He knew that tone. If someone or something had done this to these people, then they were going to pay.

**************************

Julia and Susan were glad when the Professor ordered them to stop, but were not so pleased when they found out why.

"You can't leave us tied up here!" she screamed at the receding figure of the Professor.

She was about to hurl more abuse at him when the bushes opposite the tree they were tied to begun to rustle and move violently. When she did open her mouth, it wasn't abuse that came out, it was a frightened scream.

****************************

Both the Doctor and Jack looked up when the scream filled the silence.

"Which way?" Jack said.

The Doctor motioned for Jack to be quiet. He stood, head tilted to one side, and when the next scream rang out, he moved.

Jack tried his best to keep up with the weaving form of the Doctor, doing his best not to collide with any of the statues. The screams had become more and more desperate sounding, and he knew that they may not make it in time.

He lost sight of the Doctor as he dodged a group of statues and when he reached where the Doctor had gone, he found himself on the edge of the statues. He just managed to see the disappearing edge of the Doctor's coat tails and sprinted in the same direction.

The Doctor cleared the field of statues, his hearing tuned into the screams, now tinged with desperation. He rounded the corner of a wall, and skidded to a halt.

******************

The vine must have been a good five metres in height, and double that in width, its sibilant hiss drowned out the two frightened women's screams.

He flicked a glance over at the pair. Julia was trying her best to kick a tendril as thick as her leg away from the pair of them. It was only inches away from her foot, and had already got a small tendril attached to Susan's arm.

Indecision froze him to the spot, should he try and rescue the women, or should he go for the vine.

His mind was made up for him, as Jack barrelled round the corner, knife drawn, and with a cry that wouldn't have gone amiss on any battlefield, launched himself at the body of the vine.

Reacting to Jack's actions, the Doctor ran over to the two women, savagely kicked the vine away from Julia's foot, and tore the tendril from Susan's arm.

He quickly sonicked their restraints and grabbed hold of Susan and herded them away from the vine. Without speaking, he turned back to the life or death battle between Jack and the vine.

*********************

Jack had heard the hiss of something definitely not pleasant, and slowed just enough to draw his blade. He charged round the corner, saw the Doctor frozen, looking at the thing on one side, and the two women on the other.

Without thinking, he bellowed a battle cry he'd once heard and launched himself at the thing. The shriek if gave as he plunged his blade deep into what he hoped was flesh, almost deafened him. Green ichor spattered across his face and arms, as the thing lurched backwards, swiping at the annoyance with an over large tendril.

Jack dodge the tendril as it came towards him, and went in again, trying to make the gaping hole he had made bigger. He drove the knife further into the flesh of the thing, and the sound it made this time wasn't a screech of annoyance, but it came from deep within the thing.

He moved away again, preparing to go in once more, when a hand caught his arm in a steely grip. It was the Doctor, his face set in an unreadable mask.

"Enough, Jack, it's dying, leave it," he said, his voice tinged with a sad tone.

********************************

Jack blinked away the red mist that had descended, and watched with the Doctor as the vine slunk away into the bushes, leaving a trail of ichor behind it.

"Was that one of those, what did you call them?" he said.

"Malusian Vine, a big one at that. You were lucky, it could have had you for starters," the Doctor sniffed, turned and walked back towards Julia and Susan.

"Are you both all right, it didn't hurt you, did it?" he asked Susan.

Susan shook her head silently, but her eyes never left the spot where the vine had been a few minutes earlier. "I want to go home," she said in a shaky voice, tears forming in her eyes.

The Doctor crouched down in front of her. "I'll get you out of here, I promise. But I need to know, where did the Professor go?"

"He headed in that direction," Julia said. "I hope one of those things swallowed him whole," she said, her voice laced with venom.

The Doctor stood up, then turned back to Jack. "Jack, take them back to the tunnels, you know the way, get them out of here."

"No way!" Jack bristled.

"I haven't got time to argue, Jack, just do it!" the Doctor snapped.

Jack stiffened, folded his arms and glared at the Doctor. "You are not going alone, you need someone to watch your back!" he snapped back.

The Doctor was about to give an acidic reply, when Julia cut across their argument.

"Oh, for god's sakes, will you both put your male pride back in their cages, and go and find the bastard! "she yelled.

Jack looked at Julia, then at the Doctor. "Well?"

The Doctor quirked an eyebrow, and nodded. "You're sure you'll be fine?"

"Yes, just go!" they both chorused.

Letting out a breath, the Doctor turned on his heel. "C'mon, Jack, let's go bag us a bad guy."

*************************

The Professor hoped the two women would distract the others, just long enough so he could find the power source. He clambered over a small wall, holding a device out in front of him. If he could remove the power source, then this trip wouldn't be a failure. It was a pity he'd lost the Doctor; he would have gained a tidy bonus for bringing in a live alien specimen. No matter, there would be another time.

The device in his hand suddenly beeped, and continued beeping. The power source must be near, he thought as he entered a large building. He stopped as the device went crazy as he approached what looked like a large stone trap door, covered in large carved stones. He must be right on top of it.

Now his problem was how to remove the stones, but he had a feeling the solution wasn't that far away.

********************************

The Doctor stopped suddenly, and sniffed the air. "What is that smell? I know it. Gaah! Think, think!" he said, pulling at his hair, as if trying to stimulate his memory.

Jack stood to one side, wishing he could smell whatever the Doctor did.

"Yes!" the Doctor suddenly yelled. "No, it couldn't, could it? Not here, no way! He took in another noseful of air. "This is not good, not good at all."

He suddenly took off, startling Jack, who took a few seconds to follow. "Dammit! he said. He'd forgotten how fast the Doctor could be.

"Doctor!" he called, but was only answered by silence. He set off in the direction the Doctor had gone, and found himself in front of a large building with only one entrance.

He heard the sound of shuffling, and what sounded like a muffled yell. He was suddenly very alert, his trouble radar switched to high gear. He approached the entrance and stopped at the threshold.

He heard the shuffling again. "Doctor?" he said, and stepped into the dark. As his eyes adjusted to the darkened interior, he saw the Doctor. ut his eyes were drawn to the figure behind him.

It was Simmons. One hand was over the Doctor's mouth, and the other held a knife to the Doctor's throat. Jack moved forward, but Simmons pressed the knife closer to the Doctor's throat, and a trickle of blood appeared below the blade.

"Please don't move, Captain, or this could get very messy. I have need of your muscle."

**Chapter Nineteen**

Jack heaved the last of the carved stones from the trap door. He glanced over at Simmons, who had swapped a blade for a gun.

"Well done Captain, all you have to do now is open the trap door."

"I really wouldn't do that," the Doctor said, breaking his silence.

"Oh, and why would that be, the human race not allowed to have such power, or do you want to keep it for yourself."

The Doctor looked at Simmons. "If you want to think that, fine. But you really don't want to find out what's down there."

"Oh I think I do. Please, continue captain," he said, making his point by levelling the gun at the Doctor's head.

**************************

Jack glared at Simmons, and then looked at the Doctor, and the gun levelled at his head.

The Doctor's face was neutral, but his eyes said a thousand words.

Jack knew that look, that 'I'm not worth it' look. Jack chose to ignore it, and wrapped the chain around his arm and pulled.

The stone moved a lot easier than it should, and a rush of air preceded the stone coming loose.

Jack dropped the chain, and backed away, the stench was almost overpowering.

"Thank you captain, you have been most helpful. However, your usefulness is at an end."

Simmons swung the gun away from the Doctor, towards Jack and fired.

"No! the Doctor cried, rushing over to Jack.

But it was too late; the gaping hole in Jack's chest was evidence of that. He heard the click of the gun and the feel of warm metal against his neck.

"Shall we go, Doctor" Simmons said.

***********************

The Doctor stood up slowly, felt the heat from Jack's blood on his hands. He felt his own blood heat up, not with impetuous hot anger, but with cold unfeeling anger. He'd toyed with the idea of telling Simmons what was down below, what he had smelt on the air.

That was until he'd murdered Jack. It didn't matter to him that Jack was immortal, every time Jack died; he felt it, like a stab to his soul.

Now he didn't care what happened once they got below. If Simmons wanted power, then he was going to get it.

"No dawdling," Simmons gestured with his weapon, keeping it trained on him, as he climbed down the short ladder.

Not that he had any intentions of running, he wanted, no, needed to see the power source. If it was what he thought it was, then it really couldn't be allowed out of this city.

***********************

The tunnel they found themselves in wasn't made of ice, but metal. The smell of that power source was getting stronger. But now there was something else mixed in with it, it was the smell of decay, the smell of something unnatural.

They had walked for about two hundred metres, when a door stopped their progress.

The Doctor could feel the power coming from inside, he didn't need to smell it. All he could smell was the stench of the long time dead.

"I believe you have the right equipment to open the door," Simmons said. "No stalling please, I'm very good at inflicting maximum pain with minimum damage."

"I'm sure you are," the Doctor said, producing his sonic.

"You are becoming more and more indispensable Doctor. My employer's will be extremely interested in you. Once we retrieve the power source, we'll be making a little trip."

After a few minutes of sonicking, the door gave a hiss and slid open.

**************************

The smell of decayed flesh hit the Doctor's nose in a wave of unpleasant odours, and he tried his best not to look at the remains of what were probably Xanz.

He was distracted by the object that stood in the middle of the room. The power coming from it almost sang to him, enticing him forward. It was almost overwhelming, and he took a step backwards.

"I don't think so," Simmons said, pressing the gun into the Doctor's spine.

He handed the Doctor an empty backpack. "Remove the power source."

The Doctor hesitated; eyeing the object like it was a venomous serpent.

"Doctor, don't make me injure you," Simmons said.

The Doctor chided himself for being afraid. He reached out for the object, could feel the sweat on his palm, his hand was trembling slightly.

"You really have no idea what thing is, or what it does," he said, as he reached for it.

"Oh but I do. I always make sure I know what it is I'm being paid to retrieve. Please, place it in the bag. I believe we will have to make a quick exit."

The Doctor didn't seem that surprised that Simmons would know what the object was. Nor was he surprised that Simmons didn't care. But he was right about the quick exit, there was bound to be some kind of security system.

He reached out and placed a hand round the object, felt the cold heat of it, frozen as it was. A wave of its energy coursed through his hand, up his arm, filling his whole body.

The feeling was like nothing else, it caressed his whole body. It was like ice cool fingers on a hot day, like bathing in cool springs in the summer.

Simmons voice broke through the euphoria. "In the bag please, I believe minimum contact is the order of the day."

Carefully, almost reluctantly the Doctor placed the object in the backpack, and handed it back to Simmons.

"Well done Doctor, now I think we should leave."

A low distant rumble gave credence to Simmons words, and the metal floor began to vibrate.

"I think we should, as you eloquently put it, run!" Simmons said.

***********************

Life rushed back into Jack, painfully and suddenly. He shot up, his hand going to his chest, finding the already healing wound.

That bastard had held a knife to the Doctor's throat. "Oh, you are so going to pay," he growled, and got slowly to his feet.

He was about to climb down the ladder, when the ground began to vibrate under his feet, and as he steadied himself, he heard the sounds of frightened cries coming from outside the building.

He stood on the ladder, indecision paralysing him. Did he go after the Doctor, or go back to Susan and Julia. Another set of terrified cries made up his mind, and he climbed out of the trap door, and out of the building. The Doctor would have to help himself, for now.

The rumbling under his feet wasn't lessening; in fact it was increasing alarmingly. He ran back to where he had left the two women.

He found then clinging desperately to the remains of a wall, as building crumbled around them.

Dodging falling stones and masonry, Jack skidded to a halt in front of the two women.

"It's an earthquake!" Julia cried.

"Come one, we have to move!" Jack yelled over the almost deafening rumble.

*********************

The three figures ran at full pelt through the statues, which were now crumbling under the vibration. Jack didn't have time to think that they were once living things. His only concern was to get them out of this place, if he could.

He hurried the two women up the steps, and into the ice tunnels. Chunks of ice and rock were starting to fall, as they trio raced back along the tunnel.

Julia went to turn right, but Jack yelled. "No, keep going left!"

The three of them burst out into the large cavern. At the centre there was a large body of water, icy clear and not very inviting. Jack had figured that somehow this was the way out, water had to come from somewhere.

"In, in!" he yelled and pushed the two exhausted women into the water, diving in himself, just as cracks started to appear in the roof of the cavern, and with a ear-splitting screech, a huge chunk of icy cavern plummeted towards him.

He dove under the surface, and immediately felt the pull of something, and found himself carried along in a swirl of water. He had to close his eyes against the force of it, so he couldn't see if the other two were in front, behind or if they were with him at all.

He let the water take him, pulling him down into inky blackness, and all he could think about was the Doctor.

*********************

The Doctor steadied himself against the wall of the tunnel, as the tremors increased.

"This whole city is coming down, we have to leave!" he yelled at Simmons.

"Patience Doctor, there's more than one way out of this place. Do you really think my employer's would leave anything to chance," Simmons said calmly, as he took out a small device.

"Central, this is Simmons, have retrieved the object. Have a transport waiting at the co-ordinates, and tell them to bring a cryo-unit, I have a specimen for them."

**************************

Jack shot out of the water, and took in a deep breath of cold air. It took him a few seconds to realise he was on the surface, and two figures were floating next to him. He grabbed hold of one of them and swam to the edge of the water, and heaved the still form of Julia onto the ice. He turned round, swam back to the floating body of Susan and did the same.

He hauled himself out of the water, and lay exhausted, breath forming clouds in front of him. He forced himself up, and crawled over to the two women, and was relieved that they were alive.

He was about to check them over, when he heard the too familiar sound of a transmat to his left. He staggered up, climbed a small rise, and froze in panic and disbelief.

************************

A helicopter was just landing, but it wasn't that what caught his attention. It was what looked suspiciously like a cryo–unit standing on the ice.

But it wasn't the cryo-unit that really caught his attention; it was the figure being man-handled inside it that did.

"Doctor!" he yelled, and began running, but knew he wouldn't make it in time.

**********************

The Doctor looked up at the sound of his name being yelled, and saw Jack running towards them.

"Put him inside," Simmons ordered. "I'll deal with the captain."

The last thing the Doctor saw before he felt the chill of the freezing process was Simmons aiming a rifle at Jack.

*****************

Jack saw the man, Simmons, raise the rifle, and as the crack- bang of it being fired echoed, he dived to the ground, and stayed down.

He heard the sound of the helicopter taking off, and raising his head, he saw the helicopter and the cryo-unit, with the Doctor inside, fly into the distance.

***********************

The cold was all pervading, that was why he couldn't feel his hands or feet. Then he couldn't feel his arms or legs, and soon he could feel nothing, nothing but the cold.

**TBC in " Cold Runs Deep"**


End file.
